In science, real science is any human investigation that can be demonstrated mathematically; whereas, conversely, any human investigation that cannot be demonstrated mathematically cannot be called real science. [1]
Overview
In circa 1490, Leonardo da Vince stated the following: [1]
“No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically.”
In 1833, amid the Whewell-Coleridge debate, between English science historian William Whewell and English romantic philosopher Samuel Coleridge, the question of what exactly someone who works ‘in the real sciences’, as Coleridge had phrased it, should be called, and what exactly are the real sciences, in the context of the tree of knowledge? A result of this debate is that the term "scientist" was coined, by Whewell; a term that by 1840 had made its way into the OED.
See also
● Hard science
References
1. (a) Da Vinci, Leonardo. (c.1490). Treatise on Painting (ch. 1). trans. J.P. Richter. Publisher.
(b) Mackay, Alan L. (1991). A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (pg. 151). CRC Press.