Don't we all love equations?
I mean, don't you like the image of a blackboard covered with unintelligible equations, that seem more like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs?
Now, when you ask someone to give their opinion about mathematics, in one word. The answers will cover almost all the negative adjectives out there.
If we have "Mathematics is ______?" as a question, answers will be something like: boring, confusing, weird, incomprehensible.
But, wait! Maths is BEAUTIFUL?
An article from BBC says that researchers have found that our brain perceives mathematical equations as beautiful. The areas in our brain, that light up when we see a mathematical equation, are the same areas that light up when we appreciate art, or music.
Perhaps, it's the mystery of mathematics that makes us think so.
To me, mathematics is magic. It's the language of the universe.
When I read the article, I felt I should try asking my friends what they think about equations.
I scribbled a few equations (Schrodinger's wave equation, Euler's identity, equation for correlation between two variables), and showed them to my friends.
I asked them how they feel when they see those equations. While some of them gave expected responses, most of them did agree that they found it pleasing to the eye.
Consider the following: You are not a physicist or a mathematician, and you're watching an episode of the popular sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory' or an episode of 'NUMB3RS'.
Or maybe, you're watching the 2001 movie 'A Beautiful Mind'.
Now, there are plenty of occasions in these series, and the movie, where you see blackboards covered, end to end, with equations.
My question is, do these equations, even if they don't make sense to you, stimulate your brain?
Do you perceive them as beautiful? Or do you just skim through them, without a thought?
One of my friends said that the equations make him 'think'. He wants to know the meaning behind the equation, and understand it fully to appreciate it's beauty.
But it does make him wonder how the equation came into being. What great minds could have formulated a concoction of scribbles that define reality.
Mathematics is logic. But, do we appreciate logic?
Or do we appreciate the aesthetics of the equations? Those meaningless scribbles, given meaning by great minds?
To find out, I asked my friends another question.
And, I'll skip to the results. Although, mathematicians find Euler's identity to be the most beautiful.
Non-mathematicians, like myself, will find Ramanujan's infinite series to be more beautiful. Whereas mathematicians find the equation to be the ugliest.
Only after knowing the logic behind Euler's identity, are we able to appreciate it's beauty.
So, to the untrained eye, complexity means beauty. Interesting
Anyways, if you want to read the full BBC article, click here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26151062
So, do you find mathematics beautiful? Leave your answers in the comments below.
I mean, don't you like the image of a blackboard covered with unintelligible equations, that seem more like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs?
Now, when you ask someone to give their opinion about mathematics, in one word. The answers will cover almost all the negative adjectives out there.
If we have "Mathematics is ______?" as a question, answers will be something like: boring, confusing, weird, incomprehensible.
But, wait! Maths is BEAUTIFUL?
An article from BBC says that researchers have found that our brain perceives mathematical equations as beautiful. The areas in our brain, that light up when we see a mathematical equation, are the same areas that light up when we appreciate art, or music.
Perhaps, it's the mystery of mathematics that makes us think so.
To me, mathematics is magic. It's the language of the universe.
When I read the article, I felt I should try asking my friends what they think about equations.
I scribbled a few equations (Schrodinger's wave equation, Euler's identity, equation for correlation between two variables), and showed them to my friends.
I asked them how they feel when they see those equations. While some of them gave expected responses, most of them did agree that they found it pleasing to the eye.
Consider the following: You are not a physicist or a mathematician, and you're watching an episode of the popular sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory' or an episode of 'NUMB3RS'.
Or maybe, you're watching the 2001 movie 'A Beautiful Mind'.
Now, there are plenty of occasions in these series, and the movie, where you see blackboards covered, end to end, with equations.
My question is, do these equations, even if they don't make sense to you, stimulate your brain?
Do you perceive them as beautiful? Or do you just skim through them, without a thought?
One of my friends said that the equations make him 'think'. He wants to know the meaning behind the equation, and understand it fully to appreciate it's beauty.
But it does make him wonder how the equation came into being. What great minds could have formulated a concoction of scribbles that define reality.
Mathematics is logic. But, do we appreciate logic?
Or do we appreciate the aesthetics of the equations? Those meaningless scribbles, given meaning by great minds?
To find out, I asked my friends another question.
And, I'll skip to the results. Although, mathematicians find Euler's identity to be the most beautiful.
Non-mathematicians, like myself, will find Ramanujan's infinite series to be more beautiful. Whereas mathematicians find the equation to be the ugliest.
 |
| Euler's identity |
Only after knowing the logic behind Euler's identity, are we able to appreciate it's beauty.
So, to the untrained eye, complexity means beauty. Interesting
Anyways, if you want to read the full BBC article, click here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26151062
So, do you find mathematics beautiful? Leave your answers in the comments below.
Well, even though I ain't that strong in Maths and maths is the only reason I don't get the perfect report card, still I do agree with. I, personally found mathematical equations quite irresistibly beautiful especially when I don't need to work with them. They may confuse us much I think in the end we can't imagine a world without them.
ReplyDeleteSo, no matter how bad we are at maths, we do appreciate it's beauty. And that's pretty amazing to me. :)
ReplyDelete