Cultures of Prediction: How Engineering and Science Evolve with Mathematical Tools
Cultures of Prediction: How Engineering and Science Evolve with Mathematical Tools
English | 2024 | ISBN: 0262548232 | 287 Pages | PDF (True) | 7 MB
English | 2024 | ISBN: 0262548232 | 287 Pages | PDF (True) | 7 MB
The ability to make reliable predictions based on robust and replicable methods is a defining feature of the scientific endeavor, allowing engineers to determine whether a building will stand up or where a cannonball will strike. Cultures of Prediction, which bridges history and philosophy, uncovers the dynamic history of prediction in science and engineering over four centuries. Ann Johnson and Johannes Lenhard identify four different cultures, or modes, of prediction in the history of science and engineering: rational, empirical, iterative-numerical, and exploratory-iterative. They show how all four develop together and interact with one another while emphasizing that mathematization is not a single unitary process but one that has taken many forms.