Do you believe in god or math?

[edk]

I agree with everything untill you say math is not subjective like other language. All language is subjective, and math is no exception.

This IS an appeal to authority, but perhaps you can argue it out with Einstein

Here is his take:

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Albert Einstein

pre-post edit: I've just read your reply to Rhythm. HOLY FUCKING SHITCOCK ASS DICKFACED WANK BASTARD HOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!. Are you a troll?

Okay, listen. Physics does not count rocks of sandstone, or diamonds. Generally speaking, we measure the total mass of sandstone or diamond. For the purposes of this post, when I talk about numbers of rocks, assume that either (a) each rock being referred to is a discrete logical element for the purposes of analogy which cannot be broken or make dust or be subject to surface vaporization, or (b) that the rock is the largest contiguous piece of solid rock from the original rock remaining after any decay event.

Original post follows...

I feel as if my blood may be about to boil.

Suppose you have a bag of sugar that weighs a kilogram. If you pour out all the sugar into three equal piles, then, all other things being equal, each pile will weigh 1/3 of a kilogram.
If an elephant has a pile of rocks that weighs the same as 12 tree trunks, and it divides the rocks into three equal piles, then, all other things being equal, each pile will weigh the same as 4 tree trunks.
If you drop something in a vacuum at constant Earth surface gravity, it will accelerate at 9.8m/s no matter what units you measure the 9.8m/s in. If you measured it in miles per hour, or parsecs per 10^-18ths of a second, or in 0-60 accelerations of a Toyota Land Cruiser, you would get different numbers, but the formulae linking those numbers would not change.

A small example: rock A we have measured to be 5 miles from rock B. Is there something in the real world that says this, or is it our arbitrary convention of miles that makes this true?

Miles are an arbitrary convention. You're confusing units and numbers. Units are what we use to interface maths with the real world.


Here's my own example of why maths is universal: Maths tells us that 17 cannot be divided by any integers except itself and 1. If you take 17 oranges, for example, and try to divide them evenly between any number of people other than 1 and 17, you'll have to cut the oranges up. You just can't do it any other way.

Similarly, maths tells us that a rectangle with the ratio 1:√2 will keep the same ratio if it is divided in half. There's nothing arbitrary here, just numbers, but if you use them to design sheets of paper for example you find that they still work.