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"THE ETERNAL TRUTHS OF MATHEMATICS -- https://www.whyarewehere.tv/people/george-ellis/"

— George F. R. Ellis

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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University of Cambridge alumni Fellows of the Royal Society Cosmologists People from Johannesburg Mathematicians from South Africa

Original Language: English

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Yeah, but physicists have great trouble telling you this famous question. Why does mathematics underlie physics? The famous thing that Galileo said that the nature of the universe is written in mathematics. And Wigner and Penrose and other people have pondered, why is it that physics can be written in mathematical terms? And that’s a deep philosophical question for which we don’t have a proper answer.

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Yeah, but physicists have great trouble telling you this famous question. Why does mathematics underlie physics? The famous thing that Galileo said that the nature of the universe is written in mathematics. And Wigner and Penrose and other people have pondered, why is it that physics can be written in mathematical terms? And that’s a deep philosophical question for which we don’t have a proper answer.