Chapter II

NATURE'S NUMBER
IAN STEWART

What
Mathematics Is
For?
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 MATHEMATICS AS A SORT OF
DISCOVERY?

» Communing with nature does all of us

good
» What does mathematical instinct does
for human?
» Nature‘s pattern is a puzzle, nearly always
a deep one
» Mathematics helps us discover new
things
» Some epic discoveries comes from the
help of mathematics
» E.g. Isaac Newton discovery of
acceleration and rate of change
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 MATHEMATICS IN NATURE

» The story of calculus brings out two of the

main things that mathematics is for
» In the short term, it made very little
difference whether mathematicians were
satisfied about the logical soundness of the
calculus
» Mathematics is a useful way to think about
nature
» How the snail makes its shells is largely a
matter of chemistry and genetics
» The main mathematical feature of the
developmental story of the snail‘s shell is the
spiral shape
» An evolutionary explanation of the shapes
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 MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE

» The Theory of Evolution

» Patterns in the Universe
» Period of Revolution
» The Solar System
» Mathematics is used in prediction

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 MATHEMATICS IN OUR LIVES

» The role of mathematics goes beyond mere

prediction
» Mathematics is kept as far as possible behind
the scenes
» Somebody has to understand all these things
in the past, present and future
» We should not expect new mathematics to
give an immediate dollars and cents pay off
» Good oriented research often runs up against
a brick wall, and not only in mathematics
» Like Lewis Carroll‘s Red Queen, we must run
very fast in order to understand still

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Thank You.
GONZALES
GOB
HAPAN
LITA