Timeline for Why is the physical space equivalent to $\mathbb{R}^3$ [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 4, 2012 at 6:13 | vote | accept | Pritam Majumder | ||
| Aug 30, 2012 at 18:58 | comment | added | Lee Mosher | @Pritam: To answer your question about what is meant by "a real question", read the first two headings of the FAQ. Your particular questions are not only metamathematical, they are metaphysical, and while they are fun to ponder, they are not likely to ever be answerable, other than with a common sense answer to your final question such as "because it works". | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 12:09 | comment | added | Qfwfq | Maybe this has something to do with the fact that $\mathbb{R}$ is the unique complete ordered field up to isomorphism. | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 11:41 | history | closed |
DamienC Chris Gerig Qiaochu Yuan Dan Petersen Chris Godsil |
off topic | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 8:38 | answer | added | Carlo Beenakker | timeline score: 2 | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:47 | comment | added | Pritam Majumder | Isn't the topological structure inherited from its algebraic structure, I mean the metric on $\mathbb{R}$ is $|a-b|$ which is defined according to its algebraic structure | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:29 | comment | added | Pritam Majumder | @Mariano: But mathematicians also use this fact quite often, to represent real numbers we intuitively assume they are lying on a straight line (say, drawn on a piece of paper). | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:25 | comment | added | user47274 | Maybe I would add the word "locally"... and from a mathematical point of view, I would say that $\mathbb{R}$ is not only an algebraic construction (that would maybe be true for algebraic numbers), but you are strongly considering it's topology. | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:21 | comment | added | Pritam Majumder | @Damien: I also thought people may find it off-topic, what do you mean by a real question ? | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:13 | comment | added | DamienC | I believe that this is a bit off-topic, and actually not a real question. | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:09 | comment | added | Mariano Suárez-Álvarez | Shouldn't you be asking a physicist? The reason for the goodness of the approximation is, ultimately, not mathematical. | |
| Aug 30, 2012 at 7:07 | history | asked | Pritam Majumder | CC BY-SA 3.0 |