The math is not just standard physics. That undermines the essences of the difficulties of doing physical simulations. Many of the design choices have to do with numerics, discretization of time, collision detection, etc.
Physics doesn't concern itself, for example, with how to represent polyhedral shapes, or how to compute their intersections. In the world of computer simulation, there are surely more algorithmic developments to be made. Even if the physics hasn't changed (much) for the last 300 years, there are new ways to precondition systems, and solve them, and so on. I think that's what is meant by "better math".
I think you make a good point about the trade-off difference between CAD and games. In addition to requiring that games be simulated in real-time, you also want the simulation to be causal. In a CAD tool, you can take advantage of being able to do "multiple passes" through time to refine your simulation. In a game, once you've computed the quantities pertinent to a frame, you don't get to go back and recompute those quantities and present them.
Physics doesn't concern itself, for example, with how to represent polyhedral shapes, or how to compute their intersections. In the world of computer simulation, there are surely more algorithmic developments to be made. Even if the physics hasn't changed (much) for the last 300 years, there are new ways to precondition systems, and solve them, and so on. I think that's what is meant by "better math".
I think you make a good point about the trade-off difference between CAD and games. In addition to requiring that games be simulated in real-time, you also want the simulation to be causal. In a CAD tool, you can take advantage of being able to do "multiple passes" through time to refine your simulation. In a game, once you've computed the quantities pertinent to a frame, you don't get to go back and recompute those quantities and present them.