Wednesday, March 7, 2007

pure mathematics is...

"Pure mathematics is, in its way,
      the poetry of logical ideas."

~Albert Einstein


I love this quote. Anybody that can make it past the basics in mathematics and get to the really interesting stuff, has the opportunity to see it in this poetic kind of way.

I would liken it to looking very closely at a painting. When you are really close to it, and all you see is a couple of brush strokes, and your eyes are sort of crossed because your nose is up against the painting, then it usually isn't a brilliant piece of art. But as you draw back, and bring more and more of the picture into view, you suddenly begin to see this brilliant painting. (And for many, you begin to see the artist through the painting.)

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, my wife is a math geek, too.

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  2. Oh man thats funny...thanks rick, many H's and A's

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  3. My math teacher has a mania for writing little math quotes on the chalkboard before each class.

    She apparently liked the one you posted, because she used it not too long ago.

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  4. You going to share with us who your math teacher is?

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  5. Sure, but you probably don't know her. She's Mrs. Mary Linda Guthrie...college professor, not high school.

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