/sci/ - Science & Math

How do physicist manage to produce any results given that they so often appear to have no clue as to what the underlying math is about? I have a friend who is in physics grad school now, and he uses a book by Howard Georgi called "Lie Algebra in Particle Physics", and nearly all of it looks something like what's shown in the picture in terms of how material is presented. The entire topological aspect of the subject is never even mentioned and all but most basic of results are never motivated nor proved. And yet they go on to use this book as a segway into QFT and whatnot. I'm just surprised that someone can use those tools without hardly any understanding of the actual ideas behind them. And if you don't believe me just grab the book I mentioned and see it for yourself. I'd say it's literally impossible to properly learn any lie theory using it.