XDG standard: Is Math a Science

[Peter "Firefly" Lund]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, Shaheed wrote:

> On Tuesday 10 February 2004 21:01, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> > >>Another good example is that you wouldn't call "engineering" a "science"
> > >> in English, but it is "Wissenschaft".  :-)
> >
> > Actually, you have correctly pointed out the problem, but it might not be
> > what you intended.  There is no commonly used English term that is
> > equivalent to "Wissenschaft".
>
> Its arguably not common usage, but how about "Natural Science"?

Absolutely and precisely wrong.  Wissenschaft, like the Danish word
videnskab, encompasses more than natural science.

And, strictly speaking, maths really isn't a natural science.

But should the categorization be based on fine points of linguistics or
should it be based on what (ordinary) people's first guess would be?  I
think the latter and in that case grouping math under science would be
just fine.

-Peter