Math
Like most people, once I got out of school, I've only needed basic math. However, I've always liked the truth and beauty of math.
- Arithmetic. Too easy!
- Algebra. Mostly easy.
- Trigonometry. Useful but not very pretty.
- Geometry. Probably the most beautiful branch.
- Logic. A wreath of pretty flowers.
- Numbers Theory. Appeals to the dictionary lover in me.
- Probability. Anyone for a game?
- Set Theory. What's yours is mine.
- Statistics. Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
- Calculus. So cool but it sure does get tricky.
The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics.
-Godfrey Harold Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
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.
-Bertrand Russel, Study of Mathematics
Eventually I want to collect some of the more beautiful equations such as the following.
1 + 1 = 2 ei*π + 1 = 0 Euler's Identity[W] ccircle = 2πr acircle = πr2 asphere = 4πr2 vsphere = (4/3)πr3 a2 + b2 = c2 Pythagora's Theorem a/b = c/d (148/296) + (35/70) = 1 This is fun because it has all 10 digits. fn = φn / 51/2 The nth number in the Fibonacci series. Polynomials in general
Such a collection of mathematical equations would be different from scientific equations such as the following.
E = mc2
F = ma Newton's 2nd Law
V = IR
PV = nRT Ideal Gas Law
2007-10-23 22:44:07Z