Learn the language of reality
LOVE it or loathe it, there is no escape: mathematics is out there. We live in a world that is in some sense mathematical – although in precisely what sense is still hotly debated by mathematicians, physicists, philosophers and others. We are, as a result, innately mathematical beings. Crossing the road, catching a ball, stacking the dishwasher: in our everyday lives we are constantly, unconsciously, manipulating numbers, assessing shapes, calculating position, geometry and motion. We are doing maths. But most of us see the conscious pursuit of the subject as something best left to the experts. The abstractions, conjectures and proofs of formal mathematics belong to a higher, rarefied plane few of us can access. This latest issue of New Scientist: The Collection aims to bridge the divide between the…