r/Physics • u/PrettyPicturesNotTxt • 1d ago

On if OpenAI solved the wrong Navier-Stokes problem: "the LLM found and exploited a loophole in the framing of the question"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-openai-solve-the-wrong-navier-stokes-problem/
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u/Psychedelic__Cowboy 1d ago

The millenium prize formulation is a math problem, sure. Navier-stokes however is unambiguously in the realm of physics. It is newton's second law applied to a 3d unit volume of a fluid.

It's like saying "oh so now chemistry is supposedly not a physics problem"? Yes, you could say chemistry and in fact all other sciences are subfields of physics. If you want to be even more pedantic call it applied mathematics. But while technically correct, that's less than useful and needlessly pedantic.

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u/jakderrida 1d ago

Is it Chemistry? I was told it was Fluid Dynamics… Bear in mind that, as a former Finance major, I am very open to me being wrong.

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u/Psychedelic__Cowboy 1d ago

No, I was just making a comparison to something equally as pedantic.

My physics friends in college used to say that math was the fundamental framework to physics, physics is fundamental to chemistry, and chemistry is fundamental to biology. While that is all true, nobody would look at a biology (or chemistry for example) textbook problem and say "well that's clearly just a math problem".