Mancia, John B.

195596
Section MM

Thoughts, Insights, and Synthesis – An Essay

Many people are discouraged and dumbfounded by Mathematics; It’s intimidating

nature with its abstraction. But everyone can learn to appreciate mathematics if they put
in a bit of effort and patience to grasp its essence and discover its beauty. One way of
doing so is by reading ‘What is Math?’ the prologue to The Language of Mathematics by
Keith Devlin. His concept and idea of what mathematics is one that anyone can
understand and benefit from given patience while reading. It is a wonderful read that
helps one understand the beauty of mathematics.

After reading ‘What is Math?’ I understood why such symbols and abstract notation are
used to represent Mathematics. As said in his essay, “Without its (Math) algebraic
symbols, large parts of mathematics simply would not exist.” These abstractions serve
as a lingual aspect of Mathematics, to reveal the secrets of the Universe.

One takeaway from anyone who has read ‘What is Math’ is that Mathematics is the
science of patterns. An example to illustrate this is to talk about Logic, a branch of
mathematics. Logic studies patterns of reasoning (Delvin, 2000). Logic is one of the
simpler branches in Math that anyone can get a grasp of as it is the science of correct
reasoning. We use logic day to day in our lives. An example is using reasoning to
believe whether a statement is True of False such as ‘It is going to rain today’. From this
simple example of Logic, it has branched out into much sophisticated and abstract
concepts which in return has become a branch of Mathematics.

Patterns are prevalent and seen in the natural world. Our curiosity of how and why
these patterns exist has led us to the use of mathematics to explain and make a better
sense of our world. An example of the use of mathematics to understand nature is the
Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio. Its existence helped understand nature and
its patterns. The video ‘Nature by Numbers’ by Eretea Studio visualized it beautifully. It’s
amazing how an artist could fully capture these patterns and put in into animation to see
the beauty and harmony that a Mathematician imagines and experiences when he/she
does the Mathematics.
Mancia, John B. 195596
Section MM

Other examples are using mathematical tools to help organization up to the macro level.
An example is using data from previous findings to better predict and make the most of
our resources, such as sales. Mathematics can be also used for prediction. Existing
data are used to generate analysis and interpretations. An example is stock trading;
people use algorithms built from computers to predict and understand risk.

We are in an era where Mathematics has truly transcended. The accessibility of the
internet has made it possible for anyone to learn about mathematics. In ancient times,
Mathematics was just purely arithmetic. Seeing how Mathematics unfolded, from the
ancient Greeks discovering geometry, to Thales idea of a formal proof, to the eventual
invention of Calculus by Newton and Leibniz, the curiosity of mankind has led to
uncountable knowledge of mathematics that can be accessible to anyone in the Internet
nowadays.
Mancia, John B. 195596
Section MM

Bibliography

Aufmann, R., Lockwood, J., Nation, R., Clegg, D., & Epp, S. (2018). Mathematics in the Modern World.
Cengage.

Devlin, K. (2000). Language of Mathematics.

Villa, C. (2010). etereaestudios. Retrieved from Eterea: https://etereaestudios.com/works/nature-

by-numbers/