Math is Life.
What is mathematics? To some, mathematics is an abstract exercise, the manipulation of arbitrary variables to solve contrived problems that have little to no real world application. While some people may view mathematics as a purely abstract, academic exercise, math is far more than an academic exercise or a lesson in problem-solving skills. Some mathematical facts have an incredible, austere beauty to them, tying together widely disparate areas of mathematics in a single, concise statement. However, math is not merely a thing of abstract beauty, full of awe-inspiring proofs and sparkling theoretical discoveries with few practical applications. Math is the language in which the laws of nature are written. Mathematics can describe the bonds that form in molecules too small for anyone to see, and the motion of galaxies separated by light-years of space. Mathematical models are used to describe the processes of the natural world, from the growth and decline of populations to the weather to the spread of swine flu. Through mathematics, scientists, engineers, and researchers can better understand and predict the natural world.
As a mathematician and a scientist, I believe that mathematics is best used for practical purposes: the purpose of mathematics is not only to find out about the nature of mathematical objects, but to enrich our lives. As a scientist, I’ve used math to model things from wood-fueled cook stoves to mouse immune systems. Without the insight gained from mathematics, the results of our scientific experiments would be worthless, their statistical significance impossible to interpret. Math is the glue that holds science, and by extension the modern world, together. We study mathematics not only for its aesthetic properties but for its vast array of practical applications. We study mathematics to unravel the mysteries of the universe, to learn how to build bridges, tunnels, and roads, to model and understand the world around us, and to gain a better understanding of life itself.
As mathematicians, as scientists, and as human beings, we depend daily on mathematics in every aspect of our lives. From the cars we drive to the instruments we use in the laboratory to the very clothes on our backs, mathematics permeates the very fabric of our lives. Math is not only the tool of the mathematician or the province of ivory-towered academics, writing papers filled with terms and technical jargon incomprehensible to laypeople. Math is all around us. Math is the bedrock of the things that make modern life modern life, from the discrete mathematics of 1s and 0s that powers our computers to the complex equations that engineers use to model the bridges and roads we drive on every day.
As a mathematician and a scientist, I believe that mathematics is best used for practical purposes: the purpose of mathematics is not only to find out about the nature of mathematical objects, but to enrich our lives. As a scientist, I’ve used math to model things from wood-fueled cook stoves to mouse immune systems. Without the insight gained from mathematics, the results of our scientific experiments would be worthless, their statistical significance impossible to interpret. Math is the glue that holds science, and by extension the modern world, together. We study mathematics not only for its aesthetic properties but for its vast array of practical applications. We study mathematics to unravel the mysteries of the universe, to learn how to build bridges, tunnels, and roads, to model and understand the world around us, and to gain a better understanding of life itself.
As mathematicians, as scientists, and as human beings, we depend daily on mathematics in every aspect of our lives. From the cars we drive to the instruments we use in the laboratory to the very clothes on our backs, mathematics permeates the very fabric of our lives. Math is not only the tool of the mathematician or the province of ivory-towered academics, writing papers filled with terms and technical jargon incomprehensible to laypeople. Math is all around us. Math is the bedrock of the things that make modern life modern life, from the discrete mathematics of 1s and 0s that powers our computers to the complex equations that engineers use to model the bridges and roads we drive on every day.