a Sense

Who discovered the sun? Thats a bad question because no one person did. We discover the sun every morning with our eyes. The answer is same for the Moon. With just our eyes alone we discovered Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. The naked eye alone is even sufficient enough to observe an entire separate galaxy: Andromeda. However: there are much more objects in the universe besides these and most cannot be observed with the naked eye.

How did we discover Neptune? With another of our senses: Mathematics.

Careful calculations and measurements of the orbit of Uranus displayed a violation of the Mathematical models used to predict its motion. With firm convictions in the accuracy of the model we are forced to postulate a reason for this violation.

There must exist an undiscovered massive object located in a definite position orbiting the Sun, floating alongside the other celestial beings making their way across the sky. We predicted its mass and location in space and pointed our telescopes toward that region of space. Low and behold: a new planet. Neptune.

Einstein used the language of Mathematics from the field Differential Geometry, guided by intuitions and elementary hypotheses, to run thought experiments. His theory was able to make predictions for which it took decades to have machines accurate enough to verify (i.e. Gravitational waves). But since his mental experiments, Mathematics, have lined up with experimental evidence we are afforded a new language, rich with analogies and thinking tools, with which to discuss and understand reality itself.

We use our eyes and ears to sense the world around us and we use Mathematics to do the same. Eyesight allows the concepts of light and dark, red or blue, to become part of our sense and become part of our every day language: for literal functionality and also for exploitation by analogy. Mathematics brings quantity, order, shape, symmetry, randomness, and the infinite into our sense (and is our sense of it) and achieves the same outcome (for those who speak it).