Utility
Historically, mathematics was most important in the natural sciences and engineering. However, since World War II, fields outside of the physical sciences have spawned the creation of new areas of mathematics, such as game theory and social choice theory, which grew out of economic considerations, or neural networks, which arose out of the study of the brain in neuroscience.
The advent of the computer has created new applications: studying and using the new computer technology itself (computer science), using computers to study problems arising in other areas of science (computational science), and studying the mathematics of computation (for example, theoretical computer science, computer algebra, numerical analysis). Statistics is probably the most widespread mathematical science used in the social sciences, but other areas of mathematics are proving increasingly useful in these disciplines, most notably in economics.
Read more about this topic: Applied Mathematics
Famous quotes containing the word utility:
“Moral sensibilities are nowadays at such cross-purposes that to one man a morality is proved by its utility, while to another its utility refutes it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)