Before Newton the world was seen as an unpredictable place in which
events seemed to happen at more or less at random. After Newton, it
suddenly became apparent that some at least of the phenomena of the
world could not only be explained, but also their future motions
predicted. Crucial to this was the understanding that predictions
could be made by using mathematics. This achievement cannot be
over-emphasised. Mathematics is an abstract creation of the human mind
which appears to have little, if anything, to do with reality. People
often complain "what is the possible use of mathematics?" Since
Newton, this question can be swiftly answered: the whole physical
universe works along mathematical lines. Continued at
http://plus.maths.org/issue26/features/budd/index.html
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