>>9744551Mathematics definitely began as a natural science. Making observations of the world around us and coming up with rules to describe them. Discovering numbers and using them to count things, measuring time and distance, studying shapes, etc. It was much later when people started to generalize this methodology to (at least seemingly) go beyond the physical realm. Imaginary numbers, non-euclidian geometries, infinities, and so forth. Mathematics and physics were the same thing in the beginning. These days, physics is the non-abstract part of mathematics that studies the physical world.
