1984
First Published
4.02
Average Rating
217
Number of Pages
If someone told you that mathematics is quite beautiful, you might be surprised. But you should know that some people do mathematics all their lives, and create mathematics, just as a composer creates music. Usually, every time a mathematician solves a problem, this gives rise to many oth ers, new and just as beautiful as the one which was solved. Of course, often these problems are quite difficult, and as in other disciplines can be understood only by those who have studied the subject with some depth, and know the subject well. In 1981, Jean Brette, who is responsible for the Mathematics Section of the Palais de la Decouverte (Science Museum) in Paris, invited me to give a conference at the Palais. I had never given such a conference before, to a non-mathematical public. Here was a could I communicate to such a Saturday afternoon audience what it means to do mathematics, and why one does mathematics? By "mathematics" I mean pure mathematics. This doesn't mean that pure math is better than other types of math, but I and a number of others do pure mathematics, and it's about them that I am now concerned. Math has a bad reputation, stemming from the most elementary levels. The word is in fact used in many different contexts. First, I had to explain briefly these possible contexts, and the one with which I wanted to deal.
Avg Rating
4.02
Number of Ratings
46
5 STARS
39%
4 STARS
30%
3 STARS
24%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
Serge Lang
Author · 21 books
Serge Lang was an influential mathematician in the field of number theory. Algebra is his most famous book. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
