Difference between revisions of "Mathematical beauty"
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[[Paul Erdős]] expressed his views on the ineffability of mathematics when he said, "Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I ''know'' numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is". | [[Paul Erdős]] expressed his views on the ineffability of mathematics when he said, "Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I ''know'' numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is". | ||
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| + | == What was the first bit of mathematics that made you realize that math is beautiful? (For children's book) == | ||
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| + | Various contributors to math.stackexchange.com describe early encounters with mathematical beauty: | ||
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| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323676 Pascal's triangle] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323490 Fibonacci numbers] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323473 Prime numbers and colored boxes] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323353 You can always divide something by two; magnify glass non-Euclidean geometry] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323444 Frogs and recursion] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323556 Naughty 37] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323559 Magic squares] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323399 Archimedes' method for computing areas and volumes] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/325829 Bean machine] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323696 Pi] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323441 Golden ratio] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323871 Fractals] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/324102 Realising why zero is not nothing] | ||
| + | * [http://math.stackexchange.com/a/323530 Mandelbrot set] | ||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
Revision as of 07:20, 18 May 2016
Mathematical beauty describes the notion that some mathematicians may derive aesthetic pleasure from their work, and from mathematics in general.
Contents
Description
They express this pleasure by describing mathematics (or, at least, some aspect of mathematics) as beautiful. Mathematicians describe mathematics as an art form or, at a minimum, as a creative activity. Comparisons are often made with music and poetry.
Bertrand Russell expressed his sense of mathematical beauty:
Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.
Paul Erdős expressed his views on the ineffability of mathematics when he said, "Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is".
What was the first bit of mathematics that made you realize that math is beautiful? (For children's book)
Various contributors to math.stackexchange.com describe early encounters with mathematical beauty:
- Pascal's triangle
- Fibonacci numbers
- Prime numbers and colored boxes
- You can always divide something by two; magnify glass non-Euclidean geometry
- Frogs and recursion
- Naughty 37
- Magic squares
- Archimedes' method for computing areas and volumes
- Bean machine
- Pi
- Golden ratio
- Fractals
- Realising why zero is not nothing
- Mandelbrot set
See also
External links
- Mathematical beauty @ Wikipedia
