Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday February 14 2017, @06:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the GEB' dept.

Margaret Wertheim's wide-ranging essay on mathematics, "There’s more maths in slugs and corals than we can think of" covers how mathematics is implemented by humans, animals, or natural processes. It is clever and thought-provoking. Quite long, but well worth the read. Among other topics, the author touches on music, Fourier transforms, tiling, and coral reefs.

What does it mean to know mathematics? Since maths is something we teach using textbooks that demand years of training to decipher, you might think the sine qua non is intelligence – usually 'higher' levels of whatever we imagine that to be. At the very least, you might assume that knowing mathematics requires an ability to work with symbols and signs. But here's a conundrum suggesting that this line of reasoning might not be wholly adequate. Living in tropical coral reefs are species of sea slugs known as nudibranchs, adorned with flanges embodying hyperbolic geometry, an alternative to the Euclidean geometry that we learn about in school, and a form that, over hundreds of years, many great mathematical minds tried to prove impossible.

[...] The world is full of mundane, meek, unconscious things materially embodying fiendishly complex pieces of mathematics. How can we make sense of this? I'd like to propose that sea slugs and electrons, and many other modest natural systems, are engaged in what we might call the performance of mathematics. Rather than thinking about maths, they are doing it. In the fibres of their beings and the ongoing continuity of their growth and existence they enact mathematical relationships and become mathematicians-by-practice. By looking at nature this way, we are led into a consideration of mathematics itself not through the lens of its representational power but instead as a kind of transaction. Rather than being a remote abstraction, mathematics can be conceived of as something more like music or dancing; an activity that takes place not so much in the writing down as in the playing out.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday February 14 2017, @08:48PM

    by BsAtHome (889) on Tuesday February 14 2017, @08:48PM (#467095)

    So you are driving with less air in the tires? I'm sure you can calculate the exact amount of air needed to make pi=3.2 for your wheels.

    What are you waiting for... give us an answer already, or do you need to go through the legislative to declare the correct amount of air by law (only in Indiana)?

    ;-)

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:38PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:38PM (#467157)

    That would be more air in the tires, so that perimeter does exceed diameter x 3.14159

    • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:55PM

      by BsAtHome (889) on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:55PM (#467165)

      However, using less air reduces the local radius of the tire. The circumference will remain constant while the average radius is reduced. Who said you wanted to drive on a round wheel (you never do anyway)? Problem solved, tire ruined, pi established (applepi, please).