The computer scientists have a term for things that can be built up from numbers by

thingifying processes they call data structures. The examples are sets of numbers written in
sequence and arrays of tables of numbers with several rows and columns. Mathematics builds
its basic objects of thought similarly. Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead wrote the
enormous three volume of work Principia Mathematica which began with the simplest possible
logical ingredient of the idea of a set and collection of things. The main objective was to analyze
the logical structure of mathematics but a major part of their effort went into devising
appropriate data structures for the important objects of mathematical thought. It’s something
like a tree, rooted in numbers and branching into ever more esoteric data structures as you
proceed from trunk to bough, bough to limb, limb to twig, and so on. Mathematics is not just a
collection of isolated facts. The particular mathematical fact we find related facts. For example,
if the circumference of a circle is 1t (pi) times its diameter and is close to the circumference of a
circle is 21t times its radius. The connection between these two facts is immediate is the
diameter is twice the radius. There is also a metaphorical feeling of prominence. Soaring peaks
pierce the sky, important ideas that can be used widely and seen from far away, such as
Pythagoras's theorem about right triangles, or the basic techniques of calculus. The creator of
mathematics explores its unknown mysteries, maps them, and builds roads through them to
make them more easily. Proof determines the route from one fact to another. To professional
mathematicians, no statement is considered valid unless it is proved beyond any possibility of
logical error. A great deal of work in philosophy and the foundations of mathematics has
established that you can't prove everything. Textbooks of mathematical logic say that a proof is
a sequence of statements. This is about as informative as describing a novel as a sequence of
sentences. They capture a secondary point that the story must be convincing, and they also
describe the overall format to be used but a good storyline is the most important feature of all.