The Beauty of Doing Mathematics

The Beauty of Doing Mathematics PDF

Author: Serge Lang

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1985-09-04

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9780387961491

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If someone told you that mathematics is quite beautiful, you might be surprised. But you should know that some people do mathematics all their lives, and create mathematics, just as a composer creates music. Usually, every time a mathematician solves a problem, this gives rise to many oth ers, new and just as beautiful as the one which was solved. Of course, often these problems are quite difficult, and as in other disciplines can be understood only by those who have studied the subject with some depth, and know the subject well. In 1981, Jean Brette, who is responsible for the Mathematics Section of the Palais de la Decouverte (Science Museum) in Paris, invited me to give a conference at the Palais. I had never given such a conference before, to a non-mathematical public. Here was a challenge: could I communicate to such a Saturday afternoon audience what it means to do mathematics, and why one does mathematics? By "mathematics" I mean pure mathematics. This doesn't mean that pure math is better than other types of math, but I and a number of others do pure mathematics, and it's about them that I am now concerned. Math has a bad reputation, stemming from the most elementary levels. The word is in fact used in many different contexts. First, I had to explain briefly these possible contexts, and the one with which I wanted to deal.

Practices and Policies

Practices and Policies PDF

Author: Aris Winger

Publisher:

Published: 2021-08-19

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13:

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As a natural follow up to "Asked and Answered: Dialogues On Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics", this book centers the personal narratives and contributions of mathematicians who deeply believe in the power of their advocacy work to bring positive change to the culture and climate of the mathematical community. Moreover, continuing the important theme of 5% actionable change, the book centers over 300 tangible practices and policies to advocate for students of color in mathematics, compiled from participants in our professional development programming which answers the question "What can I do to advocate for students of color?" After engaging with the book the reader will be equipped with numerous concrete suggestions for advocating for students of color, ways in which they can continue this work in spite of challenges that may arise, and most importantly, the reader will have the opportunity to reimagine what it means for them personally to be an advocate for students of color. Featuring contributions from: Elizabeth A. Arnold, Karen Cangialosi, Catherine Cannizzo, Alvaro Carbonero, Stacey S. Cofield, Bryan Dewsbury, Carrie Diaz Eaton, Ricela Feliciano-Semidei, Padi Fuster, Brittany Gelb, Abbe Herzig, Kim Holman, David Jekel, Selvi Kara, Kim Klinger-Logan, Tim McEldowney, Amaury V. Miniño, Ralph Morrison, Nikhil Sahoo, Suzanne Sindi, Vesna Stojanoska, Vanessa Sun, Sarah Sword, Lola Thompson, Lee Trent, Julianne Vega, Andrés R. Vindas-Meléndez

Dialogues on Mathematics

Dialogues on Mathematics PDF

Author: Alfred Renyi

Publisher:

Published: 2019-06-14

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 9784871871532

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This book discusses in dialogue form the basic principles of mathematics and its applications including the question: What is mathematics? What does its specific method consist of? What is its relation to the sciences and humanities? What can it offer to specialists in different fields? How can it be applied in practice and in discovering the laws of nature? Dramatized by the dialogue form and shown in the historical movements in which they originated, these questions are discussed in their full complexity, yet are easily comprehended. The first dialogue, whose chief actor is Socrates, leads the reader to the source of modern mathematics in Athens in the 5th Century BC. The second dialogue, featuring Archimedes, takes place during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC and shows the birth of applied mathematics. The third dialogue occurs in the year 1633 in Rome, its chief character being Galileo Galilei who fully realized the central importance of the mathematical method in discovering the laws of nature. Intended as supplemental reading for philosophy of mathematics courses at the high school or college level it will be of interest to both specialists and non-specialists in mathematics. Alfréd Rényi was born in Budapest Hungary in 1921. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Budapest and received his Ph. D. from the University of Szaged in 1945. Since 1950 he has been Director of the Mathematical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and since 1952 a professor at the University of Budapest. Dr. Renyi was a visiting professor at Michigan State University in 1961, at the University of Michigan in 1964 and at Stanford University in 1966. His main fields of research are probability theory, mathematical statistics and information theory, and he has also worked in analytic number theory as well as in various branches of analysis, combinatorial analysis and geometry.

Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics

Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics PDF

Author: Jean-Pierre Changeux

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1998-12-27

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780691004051

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Do numbers and the other objects of mathematics enjoy a timeless existence independent of human minds, or are they the products of cerebral invention? Do we discover them, as Plato supposed and many others have believed since, or do we construct them? Does mathematics constitute a universal language that in principle would permit human beings to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations elsewhere in the universe, or is it merely an earthly language that owes its accidental existence to the peculiar evolution of neuronal networks in our brains? Does the physical world actually obey mathematical laws, or does it seem to conform to them simply because physicists have increasingly been able to make mathematical sense of it? Jean-Pierre Changeux, an internationally renowned neurobiologist, and Alain Connes, one of the most eminent living mathematicians, find themselves deeply divided by these questions. The problematic status of mathematical objects leads Changeux and Connes to the organization and function of the brain, the ways in which its embryonic and post-natal development influences the unfolding of mathematical reasoning and other kinds of thinking, and whether human intelligence can be simulated, modeled,--or actually reproduced-- by mechanical means. The two men go on to pose ethical questions, inquiring into the natural foundations of morality and the possibility that it may have a neural basis underlying its social manifestations. This vivid record of profound disagreement and, at the same time, sincere search for mutual understanding, follows in the tradition of Poincaré, Hadamard, and von Neumann in probing the limits of human experience and intellectual possibility. Why order should exist in the world at all, and why it should be comprehensible to human beings, is the question that lies at the heart of these remarkable dialogues.

Scripting Approaches in Mathematics Education

Scripting Approaches in Mathematics Education PDF

Author: Rina Zazkis

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-10-30

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 3319626922

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This book shows how the practice of script writing can be used both as a pedagogical approach and as a research tool in mathematics education. It provides an opportunity for script-writers to articulate their mathematical arguments and/or their pedagogical approaches. It further provides researchers with a corpus of narratives that can be analyzed using a variety of theoretical perspectives. Various chapters argue for the use of dialogical method and highlight its benefits and special features. The chapters examine both “low tech” implementations as well as the use of a technological platform, LessonSketch. The chapters present results of and insights from several recent studies, which utilized scripting in mathematics education research and practice.

Dialogues Between Physics and Mathematics

Dialogues Between Physics and Mathematics PDF

Author: Mo-Lin Ge

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-12-10

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 3031175239

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This volume celebrates the 100th birthday of Professor Chen-Ning Frank Yang (Nobel 1957), one of the giants of modern science and a living legend. Starting with reminiscences of Yang's time at the research centre for theoretical physics at Stonybrook (now named C. N. Yang Institute) by his successor Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, the book is a collection of articles by world-renowned mathematicians and theoretical physicists. This emphasizes the Dialogue Between Physics and Mathematics that has been a central theme of Professor Yang’s contributions to contemporary science. Fittingly, the contributions to this volume range from experimental physics to pure mathematics, via mathematical physics. On the physics side, the contributions are from Sir Anthony Leggett (Nobel 2003), Jian-Wei Pan (Willis E. Lamb Award 2018), Alexander Polyakov (Breakthrough Prize 2013), Gerard 't Hooft (Nobel 1999), Frank Wilczek (Nobel 2004), Qikun Xue (Fritz London Prize 2020), and Zhongxian Zhao (Bernd T. Matthias Prize 2015), covering an array of topics from superconductivity to the foundations of quantum mechanics. In mathematical physics there are contributions by Sir Roger Penrose (Nobel 2022) and Edward Witten (Fields Medal 1990) on quantum twistors and quantum field theory, respectively. On the mathematics side, the contributions by Vladimir Drinfeld (Fields Medal 1990), Louis Kauffman (Wiener Gold Medal 2014), and Yuri Manin (Cantor Medal 2002) offer novel ideas from knot theory to arithmetic geometry. Inspired by the original ideas of C. N. Yang, this unique collection of papers b masters of physics and mathematics provides, at the highest level, contemporary research directions for graduate students and experts alike.

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