Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers, noted the prolific Indian mathematician Shakuntala Devi, better known as the human calculator. For all the analytics and data science wizards out there, mathematics forms the foundation of logic and intuition. According to entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun, “Mathematics, computer science and the arts are insanely related. They’re all creative expressions”.
Renowned English mathematician Ada Lovelace proclaimed that, “The science of operations, as derived from mathematics more especially is a science of itself and has its own abstract truth and value”. Russian mathematician Nikolay Ivanovich Lobachevsky, largely known for his work on hyperbolic geometry believed that there is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real world. World-acclaimed Indian mathematician S Ramanujan considered 1727 a very interesting number as it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.
Paul Lockhart, better known as math education’s anti-hero observed that mathematics is not a language, it’s an adventure. He’s also the author of the famed A Mathematician’s Lament published in 2009 and presents math as an art.
The Global Math Project resonates with Lockhart’s view on the pitiful state of math education and how math should be made more accessible and relevant to students. The project presents an excellent repository of learning materials for students and resources for teachers to make Math more fun and shine for the students. Check out about this project here.
If you are a Math geek, don’t forget to catch up on these books, mentioned in no particular order:
17 Equations That Changed The World by Ian Stewart
The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel
Euclid in the Rainforest by Joseph Mazur
What is Mathematics Really? by Reuben Hersh
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton
