So... What's so great about maths?
Hi!
My name is Vanessa and I love maths.
In fact I would go one step further to say that I adore it, and sometimes it can be very difficult to explain why to people, as no one seems to get it. I love it with a passion to the point where words can't even explain why I love it so much- but numbers can.
So, let's say we start with a very grizzly looking proof:
i.e:
Fermat's last theorem, for example.
Now think about this, Andrew Wiles sat there for 7 years of his life trying to make sense of and to eventually solve this theorem- 7 years! Now, the part in all this that I love is this- that moment when that awful looking proof falls into place; that moment where everything begins to make sense; that moment when all that time you spent sitting down, staring at a piece of paper with an array of numbers and letters scattered on it becomes worth it- that beautiful moment right there is what I love about maths.
But it isn't just on the piece of paper, its all around us- everywhere, in absolutely everything that we do from building some of the most famous and breath-taking structures possible to something as simple as throwing a ball- all of it requires maths of some description. Now for some of you who may be hopeless at maths and as a result despise it, I want to show you something:
Hold on! Give me a minute to explain! Now to you this may look like a horrible maths equation that includes far too many numbers and letters (both English and Greek) but you sporty types in particular use this far more than you think. Without too much conscious thought, you perform this equation whenever you make a 3-point shot in basketball. Do you believe me? Let me show you:
So you would use this to figure out the velocity (speed in a given direction) that one must travel at, to get a ball to land perfectly into the basket for a 3-point shot. Most basketballers (good ones anyway) want the ball to hit the basket as close to a right angle as possible. So most players attempt to shoot at 45 degrees. So using another not so nice looking equation, we figure out the range of the ball when it is thrown at that angle. After a bit of graph plotting, rearranging and substitution, we have a much nicer looking equation:
So from all that we gather that to make the 3 point shot, the player must throw the ball at approximately 28 feet per second, 19 mph. But you do all those calculations in your head in a couple of seconds- And you tell me you can't do maths!
As well as this maths is unique capacity to help us understand the way EVERYTHING works, maths is also universal. It is common across so many different languages and cultures- where words are lost in translation, numbers convey the messages the strings of letters never could and I believe that this is something completely unique to maths and is one of the most amazing things about it.
So my name is Vanessa and I love maths, I have stepped out of my comfort zone to convey to you in words, what I think is so beautiful about it and I hope so much that you all may begin to understand what the fuss is about and why us mathematicians love it so much.
Stay Curious,
Vanessa x
References:
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT6680/Huffman/Mathematics%20in%20Sports/MathematicsSports.html
My name is Vanessa and I love maths.
In fact I would go one step further to say that I adore it, and sometimes it can be very difficult to explain why to people, as no one seems to get it. I love it with a passion to the point where words can't even explain why I love it so much- but numbers can.
So, let's say we start with a very grizzly looking proof:
i.e:
Fermat's last theorem, for example.
Now think about this, Andrew Wiles sat there for 7 years of his life trying to make sense of and to eventually solve this theorem- 7 years! Now, the part in all this that I love is this- that moment when that awful looking proof falls into place; that moment where everything begins to make sense; that moment when all that time you spent sitting down, staring at a piece of paper with an array of numbers and letters scattered on it becomes worth it- that beautiful moment right there is what I love about maths.
But it isn't just on the piece of paper, its all around us- everywhere, in absolutely everything that we do from building some of the most famous and breath-taking structures possible to something as simple as throwing a ball- all of it requires maths of some description. Now for some of you who may be hopeless at maths and as a result despise it, I want to show you something:
Hold on! Give me a minute to explain! Now to you this may look like a horrible maths equation that includes far too many numbers and letters (both English and Greek) but you sporty types in particular use this far more than you think. Without too much conscious thought, you perform this equation whenever you make a 3-point shot in basketball. Do you believe me? Let me show you:
So you would use this to figure out the velocity (speed in a given direction) that one must travel at, to get a ball to land perfectly into the basket for a 3-point shot. Most basketballers (good ones anyway) want the ball to hit the basket as close to a right angle as possible. So most players attempt to shoot at 45 degrees. So using another not so nice looking equation, we figure out the range of the ball when it is thrown at that angle. After a bit of graph plotting, rearranging and substitution, we have a much nicer looking equation:
So from all that we gather that to make the 3 point shot, the player must throw the ball at approximately 28 feet per second, 19 mph. But you do all those calculations in your head in a couple of seconds- And you tell me you can't do maths!
As well as this maths is unique capacity to help us understand the way EVERYTHING works, maths is also universal. It is common across so many different languages and cultures- where words are lost in translation, numbers convey the messages the strings of letters never could and I believe that this is something completely unique to maths and is one of the most amazing things about it.
So my name is Vanessa and I love maths, I have stepped out of my comfort zone to convey to you in words, what I think is so beautiful about it and I hope so much that you all may begin to understand what the fuss is about and why us mathematicians love it so much.
Stay Curious,
Vanessa x
References:
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT6680/Huffman/Mathematics%20in%20Sports/MathematicsSports.html
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