The fact is, the vast majority of phenomena, from the motion of planets to the interactions of particles, are just too complex to be described mathematically with complete precision. Instead, the task of the theoretical physicist is to figure out which complications in a given context can be discarded, yielding a manageable mathematical formulation that still captures essential details. In predicting the course of the earth you’d better include the effects of the sun’s gravity; if you include the moon’s too, all the better, but the mathematical complexity rises significantly. (In the
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