MATHEMATICS
Ali Kemal Unver
Mathematics and the
Universe
"IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT NATURE, TO APPRECIATE NATURE, IT IS NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE THAT SHE SPEAKS IN.”
eople have very different attitudes to mathematics. While some love it, some find it very difficult and some even hate it. Even though it is true that mathematics is built on an axiomatic foundation, a strong case can be made for the ultimate foundation of mathematics being its beauty. Richard Feynman, an American physicist known for expanding the theory of quantum electrodynamics, says, “To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.” Educators who see the beauty at the center of mathematics and can make their students see it that way, are more likely to be able to get their students’ attention and teach them more effectively. Also, as well as facilitating the study of sophisticated mathematics, this puts mathematics in its proper place so as better to understand the value of what it has to say to human beings. To see the beauty and the pleasure in mathematics can change the negative attitudes of some students and help educators in teaching mathematics. Often it seems that we pursue mathematics education from either a structural or an applications point of view. From a structural point of view, we insist on building up all of the tools one may need in a sequential, logical order, because an educator will need the students to know all of the smaller pieces before they can build any of the larger ideas. An analogy for this would be if we forced somebody to study all of the nails, screws, bolts, and tools to build a house before we let them even see the plans for the house. This is one of the main reasons that most people who study mathematics in their school years think that it is a pointless exercise in playing with formulas and has no significance in real life. For these people, mathematics might be helpful only in keeping track of their checkbooks after graduation. Some students think that they can calculate whatever they need using computers, but 9
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2009