MATHEMATICS

WHAT IS MATHEMATICS?
 alphabet with which God has written the universe
science of patterns, nature exploits just about every
pattern that there is

 brilliant at helping humans to solve puzzles

NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
 an art
 a set of problem solving tools
 a study of patterns
 a language
 a process of thinking
NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
 an art
• The art in good mathematics, and mathematics
is an art, is to identify and tackle problems that
are both interesting and solvable.
NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
 an art
• Mathematics is the purest of the arts, as well as
the most misunderstood. The mathematician’s
art is asking simple and elegant questions about
our imaginary creations, and crafting satisfying
and beautiful explanations.
NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
 a set of problem solving tools
• Mathematics can be a set of collection skills that
can be applied to questions of “how many” or
“how much”
NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
 a study of patterns
• Patterns are often the explicit subject of
mathematics—sometimes even in the perfectly
ordinary sense of the word, as in the study of
‘tilings’ and ‘wall-paper’ symmetries
NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
a language
•Mathematics is pure language - the language of
science. It is unique among languages in its ability
to provide precise expression for every thought or
concept that can be formulated in its terms. (In a
spoken language, there exist words, like
"happiness", that defy definition.) It is also an art -
the most intellectual and classical of the arts.
NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
 a process of thinking
• The mathematical thinking process is the
explanation and collaboration of mathematics
through problem-solving, reasoning and proof,
communication, connections, and
representation.
FUNCTIONS OF MATHEMATICS
 systematic way of digging out the rules and
structures that lie behind some observed pattern or
regularity, and then using those rules and structures
to explain what's going on
 providing tools that let scientists calculate what
nature is doing, and providing new questions for
mathematicians to sort out to their own satisfaction
FUNCTIONS OF MATHEMATICS
 to organize the underlying patterns and
regularities in the most satisfying way
 to predict how nature will behave
 to control nature for our own ends
 to make practical use of what we have learned
about our world
FUNCTIONS OF MATHEMATICS
 to relate the resulting geometry to all the different
variables-such as growth rate and eccentricity of
growth-that are involved