He is the author, most recently, of “The Calculus of Friendship,” the story of his 30-year correspondence with his high school calculus teacher. In this series, which appears every Monday, he takes readers from the basics of math to the baffling.
NYTimes
http://opinionator.blogs.
Where exactly do numbers come from? Did humanity invent them? Or discover them?
A further subtlety is that numbers (and all mathematical ideas, for that matter) have lives of their own. We can’t control them. Even though they exist in our minds, once we decide what we mean by them we have no say in how they behave. They obey certain laws and have certain properties, personalities, and ways of combining with one another, and there’s nothing we can do about it except watch and try to understand. In that sense they are eerily reminiscent of atoms and stars, the things of this world, which are likewise subject to laws beyond our control … except that those things exist outside our heads....
2 comments:
Steven Strogatz writes on the represative qualities of numbers in it's simplest form, and the elegant and abstract nature that they posses. Derived from this concept that which number's are "broad" and can represent anything, they now take on a more mysterious nature which insists that "they apparently exist in some sort of Platonic realm, a level beyond reality". This translates wonderfully into algebra, as the concept of using Xs or hearts or eyes or anything as representative symbols for these numbers is one which is parallel with his idea. Not only does he express the meaning that numbers contain any possible representation, but highlights the importance of the simple concept of numbers representing a specific quantity. He refers to the sesame street video, in which some animals are at a market, and one wishes to buy "fish fish fish fish fish fish"(as opposed to just stating "6 fish") . Here I am reminded how convenient numbers are, and what a luxury it is to have had such intellegent humans before us discover the concept of math. It indeed is a luxury that which many of us take for granted.
From this simple concept, Strogatz goes on to inturpret the more philosophical underlying layers which numbers possess, such as the notion that which numbers "have a life of thier own" and that "we cannot controll them"... thus rendering them "subject to laws beyond our controll".
He goes on more to intrurpret; one can really dig deep into this stuff. This article very much so unveiled a different direction of thought and perception for me, in regards to numbers. I hope to keep up with his later thoughts.
Thank you Kathryn, for this beautiful response.
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