discovered. the difference is if it naturally exists, you discover it whereas if it does not naturally exist it is invented. if it were invented, then it wouldnt have been until it WAS that for example a rock being added to a pile of four other rocks would then make the pile have five rocks. but naturally it does, as there is no other possible answer (without suggesting something such as one rock being split or by stating that the word "pile" was not defined, however im sure we all know what a pile is)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

it was invented. counting=/=math. y-intercepts and cosines weren't floating around before humans came along; they were made up, with their minds i mean, out of nothing. humans invented math.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually we just gave it a name. I just used addition/counting as an example that we could all easily understand. And counting is math, just very basic math. Lets take it a step up then: the Pythagorean theorem, which is a²+b²=c², a and b being the legs of a right triangle, c being the hypotenuse. Again, this is something that happens naturally. If it were invented, then it wouldnt exist until we made it exist. but it did. what you are probably thinking of is the written formula of a²+b²=c², which is simply the representation of this theorem. (yes i understand that i pretty much just repeated my first comment.)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

math IS those written formulas. we figured out how everything is in proportion in one another and INVENTED a way to write it all. the alphabet was also not invented then? since all the sounds were already available to the humans?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Mathematics- "the science of numbers and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalizations" -Webster's dictionary. Notice, it states that mathematics is the actual science. As a science, it is discovered, and not invented.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

no, science, in fact, IS something that is invented. the science of numbers is the study/practice/etc using NUMBERS and humans were the one who made them up in the first place

by Anonymous 13 years ago

We invented the numbers, not the science of numbers, which is what math is as previously defined.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

no, science is completely man-made. all sciences

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The terms and technology that came out of science were invented. However, science in essence is not invented. Definitions of science vary, so it would be difficult to give one without causing argument that is close to irrelevant. But all science is knowledge of a certain subject. Although it could be argued that knowledge is invented, in the case of professional science, (as opposed to things such as religion, of course not dipping into whether or not it is real. Seriously, lets not get into that.) it is not, or at the very least it should not be. And if it is invented in the sense that it is made up or theorized, then usually it is tested for the sake of finding the truth.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Neither. The models it is based on were/are discovered. The theorems that define the models were/are invented. However, mathematics, being a "school of thought", was/is developed.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Some parts were discovered, but most were invented after making up many rules for the use of numbers and such. If there werent rules for formulas/numbers/equations to follow, there wouldnt really be math. Just numbers. Numbers were invented. If it werent for numbers being invented, one rock plus one zebra could equal 400938374 fish in a bucket of candy. Math is not something that can be "proven" without the made up rules for it to follow. Unlike something in biology where you can actually prove that a body needs oxygen to live, you cannot prove that one plus one equals two.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually, you can.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Okay. So.... prove it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I strap you down onto a chair and chop of your right arm. That's 1. Then I chop off the other arm. That's 2. Because your screams annoy me, I chop of your head. 3.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

OWNED!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It was developed

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Honestly, the words are the same in this context.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Invented

by Anonymous 13 years ago

it was invented, because numbers themselves were invented.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Numbers weren't invented. They were named.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

As other people above me have stated, it was discovered. We just gave it a name. It is the same in every culture. Math is the universal language.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Personally, I'm straddled right at the line. Of course somethings like the symbols for the numbers were invented, but essentially it was discovered. Let's say that, hypothetically, everyone was born with six fingers on each hand. That would change the standard "by 10", right? So would Math have been "discovered" differently? How would that effect our equations? I just wanted to spark a math debate. *blushes*

by Anonymous 13 years ago