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Full Idea
Mathematics can serve to provide a framework within which one deals only with quantities of physical significance, ignoring other, irrelevant things.
Gist of Idea
Maths deals with quantities of physical significance, ignoring irrelevant features
Source
Robert Geroch (Mathematical Physics [1985], p.1), quoted by Charles Chihara - A Structural Account of Mathematics 9.8
Book Ref
Chihara,Charles: 'A Structural Account of Mathematics' [OUP 2004], p.262
A Reaction
This is a modern physicist espousing abstractionism, as derided and dismissed by Frege and Geach. It's common sense, really.