Mar

31

On the Importance of Mathematics

Filed Under Math Education | 3 Comments

Mathematics is the queen of science and the language of nature. Its importance should be clear to any reasonable person. It is easy however to diminish the value of certain areas of research because they’re currently thought as having little practical use. Evolutionary needs brought our mind to prefer knowledge that can be employed for the solution of specific problems in the real world, rather than deeply abstract ones. It is an understandable and even excusable fallacy that there are useful fields of math and useless ones, based on the perception of their applied or theoretical nature. But it’s still a misconception. Each theorem and discovery is a little piece of a larger puzzle that we conveniently categorize into aptly labeled macro-areas. Discoveries and mathematical ideas that are perceived as “useful” today because they’re applicable to engineering, for example, were at a certain point in time considered absolutely abstract and useless, or at least derived or intrinsically connected to some that were. Mathematics matters; all of it.

On the net I found an incredible lecture by the brilliant mathematician Timothy Gowers, entitled “The Importance of Mathematics”. In this keynote, Prof. Gowers makes a very strong case in favor of the value of math, of financing its relatively cheap research and its deep implications on human progress. You can watch the 8 parts that compose the whole video, in the following playlist:

For those who’d prefer it, a PDF transcript is also available.

Dec

4

Where Math-Blog is headed

Filed Under Math Education | 4 Comments

Since I began this blog, and from the time when the first of its posts started to grow in popularity, I’ve simultaneously received numerous emails from people who are deeply interested in math. If we exclude entirely nonsensical and almost comical rants from folks whose sanity is, at best, questionable, the overwhelming majority of emails are heart warming letters from people who’ve either just discovered, or rediscovered their love of math, and have found this blog to be inspirational. Receiving these letters has helped me think about my editorial line and the overall aim of this blog.

It started as a personal blog and evolved into a site which openly welcomes contributions. This much is certainly true, yet I couldn’t help but ask myself, where is Math-Blog really going? There are plenty of mathematical resources out there on the web, if you know where (and how) to search for them. What’s the point then of this blog’s existence, I couldn’t help but ponder. Aside from my own desire to speak about my great passion for mathematics, I found in these letters all the motivation and reason I needed to make Math-Blog even more prominent amongst online math resources. For you see, there is, in fact, a little known world of people who secretly - or admittedly - have a deep fascination with mathematical subjects, though for one reason or another, didn’t actually end up becoming professional mathematicians. These people have all sorts of skill levels, but more often than not, they’re in need of some catching up (or refreshing) when it comes to the basics of mathematics.

Math can be a lifelong journey of discovery, even for those whose day job has nothing to do with mathematics or who may have fared poorly in an academic math setting. I know people who’ve spent the last 10 years studying Calculus, Real and Complex Analysis, Algebra and Number Theory on their own from advanced university textbooks, purely for the pleasure of learning, and now they’re highly skilled mathematicians - despite their lack of formal mathematical certification (or having never published a single math paper in a peer reviewed journal). This world of mathematicians who approach math out of love, not as a profession, like to be inspired, guided, and helped, especially at the beginning of their journey.

Thinking about all of these points helped me to realize that Math-Blog is capable of becoming an important reference point, a place that is essentially a world of “math for the rest of us”. This is the direction that I’d like to give to Math-Blog, and while I’m aware of the fact that it’ll require more frequent posting on my part and also the creation of introductory material (which I intend to prepare/do from now on), I’m happy to produce such a mathematical environment out of this site. And for those readers who may actually be studying to become, or currently are, a mathematician, or if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and are a high school student, don’t worry, just hang in there and I assure that there’ll be plenty of mathematical fun to be had by all.

Sep

9

Thought-provoking Mathematical Videos

Filed Under Essential Math, Math Education, Suggested reading | 14 Comments

1. The Tenth Dimension



2. Outside in (Turning a sphere inside out)



3. Flatland the film (Trailer)



The full movie is available on DVD, and of course, you can also get “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, dirt cheap (a classic geek novel for less than 4 bucks). If you prefer, you could pick up the annotated hardcover version: “The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”. Highly recommended.

4. Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth



This short video shows what’s wrong with the current widely adopted methods of teaching mathematics (fortunately though, such practices have not caught on everywhere).

5. Math Education: A University View



You can consider this video a follow-up to the previous one. Clearly this education reform affects elementary school aged children, but the effects that it has on curricula at an early level also profoundly goes on to influences the education which is received by students at high school and even college levels.

Please note that we are now accepting authors and submissions for this website.

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