Mathematics is the Poetry of Logical Ideas

One of my post retirement goals is to spend more time reading. After living in my town for 8 years it felt good to finally visit my library last week to request a library card. I have a long list of books that interest me and plan to dedicate at least one hour every day to reading.

My reading list contains novels and biographies but it also includes technical books on engineering and mathematics. There is something profound and beautiful about the laws of mathematics which led Albert Einstein to equate math and logic with poetry and the philosopher Aristotle to observe that the mathematical sciences exhibit order, symmetry and limitation; and that these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

Math is beautiful because it is governed by proofs, logic and a set of laws that can not be disputed. Mathematical laws properly applied to solve problems lead to insight and truth – solutions that can be trusted. In a world where so much of life falls into areas of gray, it is refreshing to work occasionally in the black and white world of math.

Today’s polarized political environment generates a lot of arguments and misinformation. Too many people purposefully practice the politics of division and fear – spreading select information that matches their personal biases of what is right and wrong; telling people what they want to believe; and keeping a closed mind to alternate facts that contradict their preconceived positions.

Decisions made with insufficient facts always invite danger. At critical moments, people tend to see exactly what they wish to see, rather than objectively considering all the facts. Logic is the beginning of wisdom and without logic bad decisions will be made. The country would be much better off if our governing officials eliminated  emotion and party politics from their decision making process and instead used logic, facts, statistics, chemistry and science to craft wise policies that will best solve our nations problems.

I have discovered that there also appears to be health benefits associated with doing math. I recently worked on a book of Math puzzles which occupied and focused my mind over a period of several weeks. I was surprised that working on these puzzles had a positive effect on my mind and body similar to the effects I get when I meditate. While I am working on a math puzzle, all other life distractions temporarily disappear and I find that my mind becomes more focused and my body less stressed. I think a topic on “Mathematics Meditation” would make for an interesting TED Talk and be a good area for future studies in the meditation sciences field.

One last cool thing about math is that it can be used to perform magic tricks that will amaze your friends and encourage them to further explore the mysteries of math and numbers.

Try this Math as Magic trick with one of your friends:

• Have a friend give you any 3 digit number [For example, the number 519 – this trick will work with any 3 digit number]
• Repeat the digits to make a 6 digit number [519519]
• Tell the friend that your magical power leads you to believe that the number is evenly divisible by 13 [519519 / 13 = 39963 : No remainder!]
• Now tell the friend that you feel the resulting number is evenly divisible by 11 [39963 / 11 = 3633 : Again no remainder!]
• Now, have your friend divide this new number by lucky number 7 and say Shazam when the number that is returned is the original 3 digit number they gave you [3633 / 7 = 519!]

“The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God” – Euclid