William Thomson: Quotes about mathematics

William Thomson was British physicist and engineer. Explore interesting quotes on mathematics.
William Thomson: 38 quotes3 likes

“There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon the practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application; and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.”

William Thomson

Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" (3 May 1883), published in Popular Lectures Vol. I, p. 73, as quoted in The Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson

“Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.”

William Thomson

Quoted in Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson

“Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.”

William Thomson

As quoted by Silvanus Phillips Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1910) Vol. 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=S_PPAAAAMAAJ, p. 1124 <br class="br">Variant: Mathematics is the only good metaphysics.

“Now I think hydrodynamics is to be the root of all physical science, and is at present second to none in the beauty of its mathematics.”

William Thomson

Source: In a letter addressed to George Stokes dated December 20, 1857, as quoted in Fluid Mechanics in the Next Century https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3101925 (1996), by Mohamed Gad-el-Hak and Mihir Sen.