Mathematics And Beauty

Download or read book Explaining Beauty in Mathematics: An Aesthetic Theory of Mathematics written by Ulianov Montano and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-20 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops a naturalistic aesthetic theory that accounts for aesthetic phenomena in mathematics in the same terms as it accounts for more traditional aesthetic phenomena. Building upon a view advanced by James McAllister, the assertion is that beauty in science does not confine itself to anecdotes or personal idiosyncrasies, but rather that it had played a role in shaping the development of science. Mathematicians often evaluate certain pieces of mathematics using words like beautiful, elegant, or even ugly. Such evaluations are prevalent, however, rigorous investigation of them, of mathematical beauty, is much less common. The volume integrates the basic elements of aesthetics, as it has been developed over the last 200 years, with recent findings in neuropsychology as well as a good knowledge of mathematics. The volume begins with a discussion of the reasons to interpret mathematical beauty in a literal or non-literal fashion, which also serves to survey historical and contemporary approaches to mathematical beauty. The author concludes that literal approaches are much more coherent and fruitful, however, much is yet to be done. In this respect two chapters are devoted to the revision and improvement of McAllister’s theory of the role of beauty in science. These antecedents are used as a foundation to formulate a naturalistic aesthetic theory. The central idea of the theory is that aesthetic phenomena should be seen as constituting a complex dynamical system which the author calls the aesthetic as process theory. The theory comprises explications of three central topics: aesthetic experience (in mathematics), aesthetic value and aesthetic judgment. The theory is applied in the final part of the volume and is used to account for the three most salient and often used aesthetic terms often used in mathematics: beautiful, elegant and ugly. This application of the theory serves to illustrate the theory in action, but also to further discuss and develop some details and to showcase the theory’s explanatory capabilities.

Download or read book The Golden Ratio written by Gary B. Meisner and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enlightening and gorgeously illustrated book explores the beauty and mystery of the divine proportion in art, architecture, nature, and beyond. From the pyramids of Giza, to quasicrystals, to the proportions of the human face, the golden ratio has an infinite capacity to generate shapes with exquisite properties. Author Gary Meisner has spent decades researching the subject, investigating and collaborating with people across the globe in dozens of professions and walks of life. In The Golden Ratio, he shares his enlightening journey. Exploring the long history of this fascinating number, as well as new insights into its power and potential applications, The Golden Ratio invites you to take a new look at this timeless topic.

Download or read book Mathematics and Beauty written by Nathalie Sinclair and published by . This book was released on 2006-09-08 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this innovative book, Nathalie Sinclair makes a compelling case for the inclusion of the aesthetic in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Using a provocative set of philosophical, psychological, mathematical, technological, and educational insights, she illuminates how the materials and approaches we use in the mathematics classroom can be enriched for the benefit of all learners. While ranging in scope from the young learner to the professional mathematician, there is a particular focus on middle school, where negative feelings toward mathematics frequently begin. Offering specific recommendations to help teachers evoke and nurture their students’ aesthetic abilities, this book: Features powerful episodes from the classroom that show students in the act of developing a sense of mathematical aesthetics. Analyzes how aesthetic sensibilities to qualities such as connectedness, fruitfulness, apparent simplicity, visual appeal, and surprise are fundamental to mathematical inquiry. Includes examples of mathematical inquiry in computer-based learning environments, revealing some of the roles they play in supporting students’ aesthetic inclinations.

Download or read book Beauty in Mathematics: Symmetry and Fractality written by Vladimir A. Testov and published by Infinite Study. This book was released on with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most important concepts underlying beauty are the concepts of symmetry and fractality, but the relationship of these concepts has not yet remained clear. For centuries, beauty was understood only as a stable order and symmetry. Synergetic worldview allows us to give a new assessment: beauty can be seen as an attractor, the result of self-organization of nature, or the flight of human thought. On the one hand, fractality can be considered one of the manifestations of symmetry in an expansive sense.

Download or read book The Beauty of Doing Mathematics written by Serge Lang and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1985-09-04 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 challenge: 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.

Download or read book Mathematics and Art written by Lynn Gamwell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a cultural history of mathematics and art, from antiquity to the present. Mathematicians and artists have long been on a quest to understand the physical world they see before them and the abstract objects they know by thought alone. Taking readers on a tour of the practice of mathematics and the philosophical ideas that drive the discipline, Lynn Gamwell points out the important ways mathematical concepts have been expressed by artists. Sumptuous illustrations of artworks and cogent math diagrams are featured in Gamwell's comprehensive exploration. Gamwell begins by describing mathematics from antiquity to the Enlightenment, including Greek, Islamic, and Asian mathematics. Then focusing on modern culture, Gamwell traces mathematicians' search for the foundations of their science, such as David Hilbert's conception of mathematics as an arrangement of meaning-free signs, as well as artists' search for the essence of their craft, such as Aleksandr Rodchenko's monochrome paintings. She shows that self-reflection is inherent to the practice of both modern mathematics and art, and that this introspection points to a deep resonance between the two fields: Kurt Gödel posed questions about the nature of mathematics in the language of mathematics and Jasper Johns asked "What is art?" in the vocabulary of art. Throughout, Gamwell describes the personalities and cultural environments of a multitude of mathematicians and artists, from Gottlob Frege and Benoît Mandelbrot to Max Bill and Xu Bing. Mathematics and Art demonstrates how mathematical ideas are embodied in the visual arts and will enlighten all who are interested in the complex intellectual pursuits, personalities, and cultural settings that connect these vast disciplines.

Download or read book The Divine Proportion written by H. E. Huntley and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-06-08 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussion ranges from theories of biological growth to intervals and tones in music, Pythagorean numerology, conic sections, Pascal's triangle, the Fibonnacci series, and much more. Excellent bridge between science and art. Features 58 figures.