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Exact sciences

Sergey2020

Senior Member
Russian
Hi, could you please tell me which of these collocations are natural and common - exact sciences/exact subjects/scientific subjects.
For example:
At my technical university, we mainly study exact sciences/exact subjects/scientific subjects and not arts subjects.
Thank you.
Yes, science as opposed to arts. This sentence was just an example in which I gave possible collocations to check whether any of them is not natural.
The basic division is between the sciences and the humanities or arts. The term 'exact sciences' exists, but it is not common when you're referring to the general nature of your university education - science, arts, law, etc. It is used to contrast physics, chemistry and biology from those fields that have some scientific approach, but can't so easily formulate exact laws like E = mc2 or PV = nRT. So these non-exact sciences might include psychology, economics, and anthropology.
A common colloquial term is the hard sciences. The word "hard" there refers to the use of objective measurement, experimental rigor, and testable hypotheses. By contrast the "soft" sciences study human behavior, which is far less predictable and testable than the physical universe.
This sentence was just an example in which I gave possible collocations to check whether any of them is not natural.

As said above, "exact science" (usually in the singular) is a set term, but it isn't usually used in your context. Here are a couple of examples of how we normally use it.

Forecasting the weather is not an exact science.
Marriage can be difficult and requires compromise; it's not an exact science.

In your context, I would probably use blint's suggestion:

At my technical university, we focus on hard science/the hard sciences, and not the arts.

However, as Bank says, it makes more sense to contrast the arts with the sciences in general, not just the hard/exact sciences. Therefore, I'd probably go with Newt's suggestion: we mainly study science rather than the arts.
I have never actually heard the term "exact sciences". I wonder if it's more common in Europe or specifically in Russia than it is here.

For what it's worth, I have two degrees in science and don't recall ever hearing that phrase. I have heard "hard science(s)" and I have heard the use of "not an exact science", like Gengo mentions, but that's a whole different thing, as he says. So none of those collocations are common for me.

Note: I would call chemistry a hard science but I don't know if it would qualify as an exact science. A lot of it is fairly descriptive. It's not specifically mentioned in the "exact sciences" Wikipedia article.
Yes, I've only heard 'exact science' used in the way mentioned by gengo (post 47) and generally in the negative. The usual contrast is between arts (humanities) and science. And we might contrast the natural sciences with the social sciences. And within the natural sciences, we might contrast the life sciences with the physical sciences.
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