The fascination of Maths thread

[Numpty]

Jesus, people actually read maths book for relaxation?

Yes. They'll be the intelligent ones whose grammar is correct.

[minestrone]

Yes. They'll be the intelligent ones whose grammar is correct.

I'm sorry, it should have been books and not book, I typed it wrong. My poor grammar never stopped me getting an honours in mechanical engineering and a degree in maths though.

Just not a topic I would like to spend my spare time learning, he says watching TJ Hooker on quest.

[BrowneIssue]

it should have been books and not book, I typed it wrong.

Probably not. It's more likely that you got it right and the InternWeb F***-Up Fairy changed it between you clicking on 'Submit Reply' and the text reaching the CUK servers.

not a topic I would like to spend my spare time learning

"e: the Story of a Number" by Eli Maor is the story of how a handful of major players (and scores of only slightly lesser ones) dedicated their lives to a particular interest and made a name for themselves in the process.

Through dedication and devotion, they pushed forward an academic field a little further each time. In so doing, they made available tools that others could use in engineering, chemistry, physics, civil engineering, biology et al.

There is infighting, emotional blackmail, intrigue, family feuds, the fall and rise of civilisations, and all sorts of other good stuff in this book.

It also gives a bit of an insight into how and why cutting-edge trainspotter-type behaviour can be appealing to some people.

It is a story similar to "who invented the motor car?" to which the answer is "hundreds of people over a few centuries". Fortunes were made and lost, industrial empires built and lives devoted to the most intricate of tiny improvements that allowed huge leaps forward in progress. So it is with the number e but from an academic standpoint.

Although it does demonstrate and explain some horrible degree-level maths, it is not a maths text book. It is the story of great lives well spent and a demonstration of how incredibly hard it is to achieve eternal fame. With twists upon the way too - Pythagoras was famous for what, exactly? Are you sure that was actually Pythagoras...?

The book starts with Napier's Bones. Strangely, so did the "History of Data Processing" module of my Computer Studies course. Whereas as I made the decision to switch from a life in academia studying pure mathematics to industry doing applied computing, so this book carries on along that path of mathematics research and traces a four century long line that is not yet complete - and never will be. A line that began at least four millennia ago.

Whenever we fear for the collapse of society, the end of the world or whatever will become of us, here is a lifeline: the story of a number that has continued, unbroken. A spark of hope that humanity cannot be destroyed while there are those who study the past and wonder:

Where can I go from here?

[cojak]

I love maths (and physics for that matter), I just don't understand a number or letter of it...

Imaginary numbers and the square root of minus one - wtf?

Bayesian probability - now how does that work?

I love reading about it all from a layman's point of view - but that's as far as I can manage (which is why I loved Isaac Asimov and Richard Feynman's biography was one of my all time favourites).

[NotAllThere]

Imaginary (complex) numbers are easy. Start of with the definition that i squared = -1 and everything falls into place, just using the normal rules of arithmetic.

There's stuff in maths, for example convergence of infinite series, that become absolutely clear when looked at with complex numbers.

The formula for solving cubic equations can involve using complex numbers, even if all the answers are real.

[xoggoth]

Cherie Blair's mouth is mathematically decribed by the equation for a Lemniscate of Bernoulli.

[TimberWolf]

Imaginary (complex) numbers are easy. Start of with the definition that i squared = -1 and everything falls into place, just using the normal rules of arithmetic.

There's stuff in maths, for example convergence of infinite series, that become absolutely clear when looked at with complex numbers.

The formula for solving cubic equations can involve using complex numbers, even if all the answers are real.

Isn't it the case that anything that can be solved with complex numbers can be solved without them? Admittedly less elegantly.

[TimberWolf]

Any dabbled with quaternions? Vector algebra becomes a thing of beauty in graphics applications and physical based modelling too.

[NotAllThere]

Isn't it the case that anything that can be solved with complex numbers can be solved without them? Admittedly less elegantly.

If one mathematical area can be transformed to another, then proofs in one will automatically mean proof in the other. You just choose whichever system is easier to work with. Complex analysis is for many problems, the easiest way to resolve them. You can perform addition using geometry - but who'd want to?

[shaunbhoy]

You can perform addition using geometry - but who'd want to?

Presumably the same sort of geeky nerd that can relax reading Maths books?

HTH