From Jean Victor Poncelet to the imprisoned Tiananmen Square dissidents of 1989, is prison really a good place hone one’s mathematics skills?
By: Ringo Bones
Most prisoner of war inmates opt intricate scrimshaw carving or feeling sorry for themselves, but there are an exceptional few who used their time spent in captivity to develop and improve their existing math skills. Some have even managed to contribute indispensable facts to the still growing collective mathematical knowledge.
Captured during Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign of 1812, French mathematician Jean Victor Poncelet conquered the boredom of his prison camp by aligning a lot of disorganized non-Euclidian insights into a new branch of mathematics now known as projective geometry. Its aim is to study the properties of geometric shapes that stay unchanged when seen from a distance. An example of which is when Poncelet created a set-up during his captivity – a pyramid that contains a seemingly chaotic arrangement of colored cards. When the eye looks at this particular pyramid’s base, it sees an orderly pattern due to the angle at which “chaos” - or the chaotically arranged colored cards, is projected through space to the viewer’s eye. While some of his comrades are probably busied themselves carving intricate pieces of scrimshaw, Jean Victor Poncelet managed to create a new branch of mathematics now called projective geometry.
Professor Jackow Trachtenberg, a brilliant engineer who managed to invent a very handy set of mathematical shortcuts now known as the Trachtenberg Speed System of Mathematics during the years that he spent in captivity at Hitler’s concentration camps as a political prisoner. There’s even a Trachtenberg Mathematical Institute in Zurich, Switzerland established in honor of Professor Jackow Trachtenberg.
There also had been anecdotes during 1990 that some Chinese students who became political prisoners after their participation of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square back in 1989 have been making good use of their time spent in captivity as a political prisoner. Some have even tried to continue the unfinished work of Albert Einstein that he started since the1950s of formulating an equation that could unite the two very disparate systems of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. But is prison really an ideal place to hone one’s mathematics skills? Only time will tell.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Srinivasa Ramanujan and His Number Theory
Unjustly ignored during his tragically brief lifetime, will the mathematical genius of this minor bureaucrat from Madras, India be finally recognized?
By: Vanessa Uy
At present, his body of work on number theory is somewhat unknown beyond the confines of academia. But Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose body of work on his musings on number theory eventually gained the interest of the eminent Cambridge don Godfrey H. Handy. Which Ramanujan eventually gained “immortality” even though that fame seldom reaches beyond the cadre of the world’s leading mathematicians still deciphering the full worth of his forays into number theory. In order to appreciate the paramount importance of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s work on number theory and it’s indispensability in our current information-based society of the Internet, here is a primer on the mysterious yet wondrous world of number theory.
Number theory forms one of the facets of pure mathematics – i.e. mathematics for its own sake, without any practical goal in mind. It probably began when men (it was probably men who had the luxury of time to think of such things at the dawn of civilization) first thought of numbers as numbers – apart from the counting of his head of sheep and / or cattle.
As time went on, the “number theorists” have returned to the deceptively simple steps we count by. And repeatedly they have concluded that integers, or ordinary whole numbers – one, two, three, and so on – are the most baffling, stimulating and entertaining of all mathematical subjects. In ancient Greece at around 300 BC, the famed mathematician Euclid was famed for his exploration and discussion on prime numbers. Prime numbers are numbers - which cannot be evenly divided except by them or by the number 1. Euclid’s knowledge on prime numbers now forms the backbone of college-level number theory.
Later still, the analysis of numbers that has grown from Diophantine equations – after Diophantus’ famous “guess my age riddle” solvable by an algebraic equation since named in his honor – is called the “theory of numbers”. Which thus became the purest of pure branches of present mathematics. Its development back then by Diophantus, probably between 100 to 400 AD, helped algebraists to take on an equation as a way of categorizing all numbers of a given type rather than as a relationship solely between the numbers of a specific problem. Because of this, algebra slowly began to unfold as a separate discipline.
When the 19th Century “Mathematical Giant” Carl Friedric Gauss was 19, he began to flood the pages of his notebooks with new mathematics of his own – new theorems in the abstruse realm of number theory – which profoundly contributed to the further development of number theory. Add to that the discovery of Carl Friedrich Gauss’ “star pupil” named Bernhard Riemann. Which later continued Gauss’ work in the abstruse realm of number theory that without it, our contemporary use of very large prime numbers as a basis of providing secure and foolproof Internet transaction and security would not have been possible.
At the dawn of the 20th Century, Srinivasa Ramanujan with a day-job as a minor bureaucrat in Madras, India had the good fortune of finding time to dabble into the “still abstruse realm” of number theory. Ramanujan tried several times to gain the interest of professional and tenured mathematicians in his spare-time dabbling with numbers. But the mathematicians he contacted were somewhat jaded when it comes to the antics of “numerological crackpots” so they tend to ignore recent submissions, including Ramanujan’s.
Fortunately, his work gained the notice of the eminent Cambridge don Godfrey H. Hardy who took the time to decipher the young Ramanujan’s somewhat idiosyncratic scrawls which Hardy had realized that he was witnessing the work of an undiscovered mathematical genius. Unlike university tenured mathematicians of the time, Ramanujan knew his speculations about numbers were true, so he didn’t bother to prove them. Which unfortunately Hardy finds his fresh approaches on number theory somewhat wanting despite of their brilliance.
Eventually Hardy brought Ramanujan to England in 1914, in which Hardy had spent four years in teaching the largely self-taught Ramanujan in proving his intuitively brilliant conjectures on number theory. Unfortunately, both prevailing climatic and cultural conditions of World War I era England was not to Ramanujan’s overall liking and the great mathematician-in-ascendant died of a virulent strain of tuberculosis in 1920 at the age of 32.
With so much of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s mathematical opus still left unproved, brilliant mathematicians worth their salt from all over the world are up to this very day still hard at work in examining and proving Ramanujan’s number theories. Even the late, great Pakistan-born theoretical physicist Abdus Salam – the first Muslim Nobel Laureate – first gained fame as a brilliant mathematician during his early school days by solving a math problem posed by the Indian-born Ramanujan using an approach far more elegant than that previously provided by Ramanujan himself. Thus also proving that India and Pakistan were not always at each other’s throats.
You may now wonder of what use does number theory has in our modern day-to-day Internet-based society? Well, starting during the dark days of World War II, the concept behind number theory was used to great effect by the British computer software pioneer Alan Turing in cracking NAZI-era Enigma codes. The same principle is still in use today when law enforcement agencies decipher coded communiqués being sent by criminal organizations like the Aryan Brotherhood. And also in curbing illicit on-line activity like corporate fraud and the peer-to-peer sharing of child pornography.
Even though Srinivasa Ramanujan’s work in number theory still remains largely unknown beyond the confines of university tenured mathematicians and computer “hackers” working for Internet security companies. There had been attempts to make the rest of the population aware of his brilliant and indispensable contributions to mathematics. In the TV series NUMB3RS / Numbers, one of the characters, a women mathematician of ethnic Tamil descent was named Anita Ramanujan in honor of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
By: Vanessa Uy
At present, his body of work on number theory is somewhat unknown beyond the confines of academia. But Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose body of work on his musings on number theory eventually gained the interest of the eminent Cambridge don Godfrey H. Handy. Which Ramanujan eventually gained “immortality” even though that fame seldom reaches beyond the cadre of the world’s leading mathematicians still deciphering the full worth of his forays into number theory. In order to appreciate the paramount importance of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s work on number theory and it’s indispensability in our current information-based society of the Internet, here is a primer on the mysterious yet wondrous world of number theory.
Number theory forms one of the facets of pure mathematics – i.e. mathematics for its own sake, without any practical goal in mind. It probably began when men (it was probably men who had the luxury of time to think of such things at the dawn of civilization) first thought of numbers as numbers – apart from the counting of his head of sheep and / or cattle.
As time went on, the “number theorists” have returned to the deceptively simple steps we count by. And repeatedly they have concluded that integers, or ordinary whole numbers – one, two, three, and so on – are the most baffling, stimulating and entertaining of all mathematical subjects. In ancient Greece at around 300 BC, the famed mathematician Euclid was famed for his exploration and discussion on prime numbers. Prime numbers are numbers - which cannot be evenly divided except by them or by the number 1. Euclid’s knowledge on prime numbers now forms the backbone of college-level number theory.
Later still, the analysis of numbers that has grown from Diophantine equations – after Diophantus’ famous “guess my age riddle” solvable by an algebraic equation since named in his honor – is called the “theory of numbers”. Which thus became the purest of pure branches of present mathematics. Its development back then by Diophantus, probably between 100 to 400 AD, helped algebraists to take on an equation as a way of categorizing all numbers of a given type rather than as a relationship solely between the numbers of a specific problem. Because of this, algebra slowly began to unfold as a separate discipline.
When the 19th Century “Mathematical Giant” Carl Friedric Gauss was 19, he began to flood the pages of his notebooks with new mathematics of his own – new theorems in the abstruse realm of number theory – which profoundly contributed to the further development of number theory. Add to that the discovery of Carl Friedrich Gauss’ “star pupil” named Bernhard Riemann. Which later continued Gauss’ work in the abstruse realm of number theory that without it, our contemporary use of very large prime numbers as a basis of providing secure and foolproof Internet transaction and security would not have been possible.
At the dawn of the 20th Century, Srinivasa Ramanujan with a day-job as a minor bureaucrat in Madras, India had the good fortune of finding time to dabble into the “still abstruse realm” of number theory. Ramanujan tried several times to gain the interest of professional and tenured mathematicians in his spare-time dabbling with numbers. But the mathematicians he contacted were somewhat jaded when it comes to the antics of “numerological crackpots” so they tend to ignore recent submissions, including Ramanujan’s.
Fortunately, his work gained the notice of the eminent Cambridge don Godfrey H. Hardy who took the time to decipher the young Ramanujan’s somewhat idiosyncratic scrawls which Hardy had realized that he was witnessing the work of an undiscovered mathematical genius. Unlike university tenured mathematicians of the time, Ramanujan knew his speculations about numbers were true, so he didn’t bother to prove them. Which unfortunately Hardy finds his fresh approaches on number theory somewhat wanting despite of their brilliance.
Eventually Hardy brought Ramanujan to England in 1914, in which Hardy had spent four years in teaching the largely self-taught Ramanujan in proving his intuitively brilliant conjectures on number theory. Unfortunately, both prevailing climatic and cultural conditions of World War I era England was not to Ramanujan’s overall liking and the great mathematician-in-ascendant died of a virulent strain of tuberculosis in 1920 at the age of 32.
With so much of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s mathematical opus still left unproved, brilliant mathematicians worth their salt from all over the world are up to this very day still hard at work in examining and proving Ramanujan’s number theories. Even the late, great Pakistan-born theoretical physicist Abdus Salam – the first Muslim Nobel Laureate – first gained fame as a brilliant mathematician during his early school days by solving a math problem posed by the Indian-born Ramanujan using an approach far more elegant than that previously provided by Ramanujan himself. Thus also proving that India and Pakistan were not always at each other’s throats.
You may now wonder of what use does number theory has in our modern day-to-day Internet-based society? Well, starting during the dark days of World War II, the concept behind number theory was used to great effect by the British computer software pioneer Alan Turing in cracking NAZI-era Enigma codes. The same principle is still in use today when law enforcement agencies decipher coded communiqués being sent by criminal organizations like the Aryan Brotherhood. And also in curbing illicit on-line activity like corporate fraud and the peer-to-peer sharing of child pornography.
Even though Srinivasa Ramanujan’s work in number theory still remains largely unknown beyond the confines of university tenured mathematicians and computer “hackers” working for Internet security companies. There had been attempts to make the rest of the population aware of his brilliant and indispensable contributions to mathematics. In the TV series NUMB3RS / Numbers, one of the characters, a women mathematician of ethnic Tamil descent was named Anita Ramanujan in honor of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Three Wise Men: Also Mathematicians?
The Three Wise Men of the East were rumored to be great mathematicians that were often perceived by their contemporaries has having "supernatural powers" over numbers. Is the truth behind the story stranger than fiction?
By: Vanessa Uy
Frequently mentioned in the Bible as The Three Wise Men of the East or The Three Magi who were led to Bethlehem by a star, scholars first theorized them to be astrologers from Mesopotamia – now present day Iraq. But there’s a growing consensus that The Three Wise Men of the East were in fact Persian (Iranian) Zoroastrians who were known for their very advanced mathematical prowess. While the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they brought for the infant Jesus were meant at the time to be understood as a sign that they believed the birth to be a great event.
Currently, The Three Wise Men or The Three Magi of the Bible were perhaps custodians of the Sacred Flame of the Fire Temples of Baku – a sacred site of holy pilgrimage to Zoroastrians. The mere fact that they arrived at the manger were Jesus was born hundreds of miles from their starting point only hints at their ability to navigate with extreme accuracy using celestial reference points. Does this prove that they have mathematical skills way above that of their other contemporaries?
Already well known during the Classical Hellenistic period as the priests of Zoroaster who had become custodians of Mesopotamian mathematical lore under the Persian Empire, The Magi’s mathematical knowledge was often seen as mystical or the blackest of all arts by outsiders. Given that during the time specialized mathematical knowledge being practiced by the Magi was considered a very indulgent luxury that they were often considered as magicians by their less educated brethren. Even the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras was very much intrigued by the “mystical” mathematical abilities of the priests of Zoroaster.
For early Christian historians, Iran was always above all the land of “The Three Magi”, who are guided by the Star of Bethlehem, came to worship at Jesus’ birthplace. Further, continuing Jewish tradition, the early Christian historians identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Baruch, and even with Christ himself. After the early Christian writer Justin Martyr, Zoroaster and the Magicians could be cited by Christian apologists as being among the “witnesses” from outside whom they invoked to establish the truth of Christianity in pagan eyes; Even though latter Roman era Christian historians believed that Zoroaster founded particularly abominable superstitions of astrology and magic.
Even though the very early Roman Catholic Church had a very low opinion on Zoroaster and Zoroastrians in general, the Zoroastrians’ impeccable record keeping did manage to preserve ancient mathematical knowledge dating back thousands of years. Not to mention documentation of unique celestial events like appearances of comets and supernovae. We may even owe it to The Three Wise Men of the East or the Three Magi for noticing the Star of Bethlehem, because the “Christian West” managed to ignore the great supernova of 1054 despite the Chinese and Native Americans witnessing and recording the rare celestial event. Given that the entire Christian West ever came up as an excuse for not witnessing the great supernova of 1054 was war and pestilence.
By: Vanessa Uy
Frequently mentioned in the Bible as The Three Wise Men of the East or The Three Magi who were led to Bethlehem by a star, scholars first theorized them to be astrologers from Mesopotamia – now present day Iraq. But there’s a growing consensus that The Three Wise Men of the East were in fact Persian (Iranian) Zoroastrians who were known for their very advanced mathematical prowess. While the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they brought for the infant Jesus were meant at the time to be understood as a sign that they believed the birth to be a great event.
Currently, The Three Wise Men or The Three Magi of the Bible were perhaps custodians of the Sacred Flame of the Fire Temples of Baku – a sacred site of holy pilgrimage to Zoroastrians. The mere fact that they arrived at the manger were Jesus was born hundreds of miles from their starting point only hints at their ability to navigate with extreme accuracy using celestial reference points. Does this prove that they have mathematical skills way above that of their other contemporaries?
Already well known during the Classical Hellenistic period as the priests of Zoroaster who had become custodians of Mesopotamian mathematical lore under the Persian Empire, The Magi’s mathematical knowledge was often seen as mystical or the blackest of all arts by outsiders. Given that during the time specialized mathematical knowledge being practiced by the Magi was considered a very indulgent luxury that they were often considered as magicians by their less educated brethren. Even the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras was very much intrigued by the “mystical” mathematical abilities of the priests of Zoroaster.
For early Christian historians, Iran was always above all the land of “The Three Magi”, who are guided by the Star of Bethlehem, came to worship at Jesus’ birthplace. Further, continuing Jewish tradition, the early Christian historians identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Baruch, and even with Christ himself. After the early Christian writer Justin Martyr, Zoroaster and the Magicians could be cited by Christian apologists as being among the “witnesses” from outside whom they invoked to establish the truth of Christianity in pagan eyes; Even though latter Roman era Christian historians believed that Zoroaster founded particularly abominable superstitions of astrology and magic.
Even though the very early Roman Catholic Church had a very low opinion on Zoroaster and Zoroastrians in general, the Zoroastrians’ impeccable record keeping did manage to preserve ancient mathematical knowledge dating back thousands of years. Not to mention documentation of unique celestial events like appearances of comets and supernovae. We may even owe it to The Three Wise Men of the East or the Three Magi for noticing the Star of Bethlehem, because the “Christian West” managed to ignore the great supernova of 1054 despite the Chinese and Native Americans witnessing and recording the rare celestial event. Given that the entire Christian West ever came up as an excuse for not witnessing the great supernova of 1054 was war and pestilence.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Bose-Einstein Condensate: Mathematics Made Real?
Born out of a scientific correspondence and collaboration between Albert Einstein and Indian physicist Satyendrenath Bose; Does the Bose-Einstein condensate hold promise for mankind or a mere “curiosity”?
By: Vanessa Uy
Even though we only had succeeded in confirming the existence of a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate during the second half of the 1990’s, the mathematics explaining – or modeling - the “behavior” of this strange and wonderful substance can be traced back to 1924; Which, unfortunately, is only half of the story.
In 1924, the Indian physicist Satyendrenath Bose collaborated with Albert Einstein on the Bose-Einstein theory of quantum statistics. Even though they were half a world apart – even further back then given that the jumbo jet / low-cost airlines and the Internet were yet to be invented – and never met until their work was completed. Bose was only 30 back then when, on impulse, shared some of the work he had done on quantum statistics to Einstein. The correspondence that followed resulted in the publication of their joint theory brought Bose international fame among physicists.
More than just a curio to be toyed with by theoretical / quantum physicists, Bose-Einstein condensates have very unusual physical properties which make them a potential energy source of unimaginable inexhaustibility given that they have normally zero entropy. Plus, they could serve as a foundation for quantum computing and / or quantum encryption; which could create a new data security protocol that is of several orders of magnitude better than our current ones based on Bernhard Riemann’s work on very large prime numbers.
Even more “curiouser” is the Bose-Einstein condensate cloud’s ability to slow down light from its average “airspeed” of 1 billion kilometers per hour to about the same speed of a five-year-old girl riding a bicycle with training wheels – i.e. just a few meters per second. In recent experiments, light can be slowed down even further. Given that a photon (light particles) must travel at the speed of light no matter what their energy level is to maintain a photon’s “computational” zero rest mass or there will be unfortunate “relativistic” side effects… Like time travel?!
Satyendrenath Bose and Albert Einstein had bequeathed to the scientific community a very useful mathematical tool that despite being formulated over 80 years ago had only been extensively used “practically” via the laboratory studies of the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomena. Given that ballotechnic substances like the very hot quark-gluon plasma of the early universe that existed in a superfluid state is governed – more or less – by the mathematics behind the Bose-Einstein theory of quantum statistics, is humanity’s “Holy Grail” of unlimited energy already at hand?
By: Vanessa Uy
Even though we only had succeeded in confirming the existence of a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate during the second half of the 1990’s, the mathematics explaining – or modeling - the “behavior” of this strange and wonderful substance can be traced back to 1924; Which, unfortunately, is only half of the story.
In 1924, the Indian physicist Satyendrenath Bose collaborated with Albert Einstein on the Bose-Einstein theory of quantum statistics. Even though they were half a world apart – even further back then given that the jumbo jet / low-cost airlines and the Internet were yet to be invented – and never met until their work was completed. Bose was only 30 back then when, on impulse, shared some of the work he had done on quantum statistics to Einstein. The correspondence that followed resulted in the publication of their joint theory brought Bose international fame among physicists.
More than just a curio to be toyed with by theoretical / quantum physicists, Bose-Einstein condensates have very unusual physical properties which make them a potential energy source of unimaginable inexhaustibility given that they have normally zero entropy. Plus, they could serve as a foundation for quantum computing and / or quantum encryption; which could create a new data security protocol that is of several orders of magnitude better than our current ones based on Bernhard Riemann’s work on very large prime numbers.
Even more “curiouser” is the Bose-Einstein condensate cloud’s ability to slow down light from its average “airspeed” of 1 billion kilometers per hour to about the same speed of a five-year-old girl riding a bicycle with training wheels – i.e. just a few meters per second. In recent experiments, light can be slowed down even further. Given that a photon (light particles) must travel at the speed of light no matter what their energy level is to maintain a photon’s “computational” zero rest mass or there will be unfortunate “relativistic” side effects… Like time travel?!
Satyendrenath Bose and Albert Einstein had bequeathed to the scientific community a very useful mathematical tool that despite being formulated over 80 years ago had only been extensively used “practically” via the laboratory studies of the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomena. Given that ballotechnic substances like the very hot quark-gluon plasma of the early universe that existed in a superfluid state is governed – more or less – by the mathematics behind the Bose-Einstein theory of quantum statistics, is humanity’s “Holy Grail” of unlimited energy already at hand?
No Nobel Prize for Mathematics?
It may come as a shock to most of us but nobody knows for sure – even Alfred Nobel himself haven’t left any explanations on his will – on why there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Is it a mystery worthy of a Nobel Laureate?
By: Vanessa Uy
Sooner or later, anyone who finds out that there is no Nobel Prize for Mathematics will feel somewhat perplexed. But will later descend into astonishment when no satisfactory reasons exist. Even Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament didn’t provide any explanation on why he won’t grant any of his prestigious prizes to mathematicians. But before we proceed, here’s a review on what the Nobel Prize is all about.
When Alfred Nobel got rich after inventing a manufacturing process that made the powerful but hopelessly unstable nitroglycerin – previously discovered by Ascanio Sobrero back in 1846 – into a product stable enough for use in mining and civil engineering work. Even the military sector of every nation of the world back then became the major purchasers of Alfred Nobel’s dynamite. Shy and deeply engrossed in his work, Alfred Nobel never got married. And thus formulated his last will and testament to bequeath his vast mostly self-made fortune be invested to fund a foundation / committee – later to become the Nobel Committee. And the interest awarded annually as prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. Which henceforth became known as the Nobel Prizes.
Even though Nobel Laureates of the Physics Prizes – especially quantum / theoretical physicists and Economics Prize Laureate economists can be thought of as de facto mathematicians, especially true these days. Alfred Nobel had not specifically stipulated a proviso on his will whether to explicitly award or shame mathematicians. Nobel neither put into writing nor publicly expressed his own personal sentiments about mathematicians during his lifetime. Which unfortunately started a rumor within the academic world that slowly trickled down into the general public on why Alfred Nobel has not set aside a Nobel Prize for mathematicians.
The rumor states that during one of the rare periods of his life when Alfred Nobel’s “workload” became low enough to allow him to search for a prospective bride, he lost a girl to a gifted yet obscure mathematician. Thus forever harboring resentment towards mathematicians. Even though this “apocryphal” story is about as factual as the young George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, or the apple hitting Isaac Newton on the head inspiring his eureka moment on his insight on gravity.
Given that the truth behind the story of Alfred Nobel losing his girlfriend to a mathematician will probably never gonna be substantiated in the foreseeable future. Other foundations structured similarly to the Nobel Committee were established throughout the years to recognize the achievements of our tireless mathematicians. Which is very important in today’s information-based society under the hegemony of Web 2.0 and round-the-clock global stock market trading.
By: Vanessa Uy
Sooner or later, anyone who finds out that there is no Nobel Prize for Mathematics will feel somewhat perplexed. But will later descend into astonishment when no satisfactory reasons exist. Even Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament didn’t provide any explanation on why he won’t grant any of his prestigious prizes to mathematicians. But before we proceed, here’s a review on what the Nobel Prize is all about.
When Alfred Nobel got rich after inventing a manufacturing process that made the powerful but hopelessly unstable nitroglycerin – previously discovered by Ascanio Sobrero back in 1846 – into a product stable enough for use in mining and civil engineering work. Even the military sector of every nation of the world back then became the major purchasers of Alfred Nobel’s dynamite. Shy and deeply engrossed in his work, Alfred Nobel never got married. And thus formulated his last will and testament to bequeath his vast mostly self-made fortune be invested to fund a foundation / committee – later to become the Nobel Committee. And the interest awarded annually as prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. Which henceforth became known as the Nobel Prizes.
Even though Nobel Laureates of the Physics Prizes – especially quantum / theoretical physicists and Economics Prize Laureate economists can be thought of as de facto mathematicians, especially true these days. Alfred Nobel had not specifically stipulated a proviso on his will whether to explicitly award or shame mathematicians. Nobel neither put into writing nor publicly expressed his own personal sentiments about mathematicians during his lifetime. Which unfortunately started a rumor within the academic world that slowly trickled down into the general public on why Alfred Nobel has not set aside a Nobel Prize for mathematicians.
The rumor states that during one of the rare periods of his life when Alfred Nobel’s “workload” became low enough to allow him to search for a prospective bride, he lost a girl to a gifted yet obscure mathematician. Thus forever harboring resentment towards mathematicians. Even though this “apocryphal” story is about as factual as the young George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, or the apple hitting Isaac Newton on the head inspiring his eureka moment on his insight on gravity.
Given that the truth behind the story of Alfred Nobel losing his girlfriend to a mathematician will probably never gonna be substantiated in the foreseeable future. Other foundations structured similarly to the Nobel Committee were established throughout the years to recognize the achievements of our tireless mathematicians. Which is very important in today’s information-based society under the hegemony of Web 2.0 and round-the-clock global stock market trading.
Monday, December 1, 2008
2008: A Good Year for Mathematics?
Year of the rat, year of the environmentally embattled frog, the year 2008 is now known by many things. Why not make it a good year to make everyone more aware of the benefits of mathematics in today’s society?
By: Vanessa Uy
Inexplicably, 2008 was arbitrarily tagged as the year of mathematics, marked by the de rigeur discussion / reiteration of the importance and indispensability of mathematics in today’s society. Like the application of advanced mathematics in credit derivatives – a financial instrument, which probably less than 10,000 people around the planet fully understand – plus the other esoteric mathematical tools to allow these instruments to be traded ubiquitously on the stock market. Not to mention the other math tools now widely utilized to lessen the impact of our current financial crisis. Plus the somewhat “overwrought” discussion on the contribution of mathematics that made cheap but powerful computers a reality and what have you. Then there’s that perennial belletristic diatribe on which likes or who is more “comfortable” with mathematics: girls or boys?
Mathematics, which can be both the queen and handmaiden of all the branches of all the sciences is indeed burdened with long-standing issues. Given mathematics’ overall decline in popularity since the end of America’s manned lunar exploration program – despite contemporary society’s utter dependence on it in order to function – any program aiming to make mathematics more popular – especially to the younger generation – should be embraced with open arms. It’s been known for sometime now that those who depend mathematics for their day jobs are somewhat “socially ignored” despite of their utter indispensability in today’s society. Even us, who are only using mathematics for “hobby” purposes should be grateful that academia is busy promoting mathematics to the general public. Maybe in the future, more people will understand why some are fascinated by mathematics – even at just a hobbyist’s level.
Year of the rat, year of the environmental degradation embattled frog, 2008 might be remembered as a pivotal year when mathematics gained widespread popularity again – like it did during the Eisenhower administration. Given that career mathematicians are now getting consultation-related work on formulating plans to end our current ever deepening global financial crisis, 2008 might indeed be a good year for mathematics.
By: Vanessa Uy
Inexplicably, 2008 was arbitrarily tagged as the year of mathematics, marked by the de rigeur discussion / reiteration of the importance and indispensability of mathematics in today’s society. Like the application of advanced mathematics in credit derivatives – a financial instrument, which probably less than 10,000 people around the planet fully understand – plus the other esoteric mathematical tools to allow these instruments to be traded ubiquitously on the stock market. Not to mention the other math tools now widely utilized to lessen the impact of our current financial crisis. Plus the somewhat “overwrought” discussion on the contribution of mathematics that made cheap but powerful computers a reality and what have you. Then there’s that perennial belletristic diatribe on which likes or who is more “comfortable” with mathematics: girls or boys?
Mathematics, which can be both the queen and handmaiden of all the branches of all the sciences is indeed burdened with long-standing issues. Given mathematics’ overall decline in popularity since the end of America’s manned lunar exploration program – despite contemporary society’s utter dependence on it in order to function – any program aiming to make mathematics more popular – especially to the younger generation – should be embraced with open arms. It’s been known for sometime now that those who depend mathematics for their day jobs are somewhat “socially ignored” despite of their utter indispensability in today’s society. Even us, who are only using mathematics for “hobby” purposes should be grateful that academia is busy promoting mathematics to the general public. Maybe in the future, more people will understand why some are fascinated by mathematics – even at just a hobbyist’s level.
Year of the rat, year of the environmental degradation embattled frog, 2008 might be remembered as a pivotal year when mathematics gained widespread popularity again – like it did during the Eisenhower administration. Given that career mathematicians are now getting consultation-related work on formulating plans to end our current ever deepening global financial crisis, 2008 might indeed be a good year for mathematics.
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