Does math have to be useful to be worthwhile?
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Does math have to be useful to be worthwhile?
What do you think of recreational math? Is it worthwhile? A noted mathematician named Leonhard Euler explored the Konisberg bridges puzzle. The solution led to graph theory and topology, an important branch of math. Euler and Fermat also explored magic squares (which are the basis of Sudoku puzzles which populate supermarket shelves).
Another noted mathematician, GH Hardy, said he hoped that math will never be useful (although parts of it are quite useful so I wonder if he was misquoted).
What are your thoughts on this?
PhilX
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gamahucherpress.yellowgum.com/wp-conten ... MATICS.pdfMATHEMATICS ENDS IN MEANINGLESSNESS
(Mathematics will become to be seen as just an artificial man made game an elaborate puzzle game used to exercise the left hemisphere of the brain-with some lucky/fluky applications to the real world. A puzzle game that is made to be consistent with certain rules that are made to make mathematics consistent – and when an inconsistency is found new ad hoc rules-like the axiom of separation- are made to ban the problem and make mathematics consistent again Mathematics will become to be seen as just an artificial man made game an elaborate puzzle game)
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Many people find sudoku recreational.
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Therefore, it is essential to differentiate between mathematics and arithmetic. Mathematics is more like a language; it also involves much intuition and a very strong ability to analyze, synthesize, and extrapolate. Serious mathematics is much like great literature. Their usefulness cannot be defined. They enrich the human experience in myriad ways, and different people draw different things from mathematics and literature. In this sense, mathematics is certainly useful (it enriches the lives of those who practice it seriously). Arithmetic, on the other hand, is ubiquitous and provides more tangible outcomes.
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Re: Does math have to be useful to be worthwhile?
I must disagree with you here.Anthony Edgar wrote: ↑October 9th, 2016, 5:50 am I think usefulness is an good indicator of truth. If any mathematical or scientific theory is false, it ain't gunna be no use coz it don't work.
Just because a kind of math may not be useful now doesn't mean that it won't be useful in the future, or give someone a leg up on the competition when new things are discovered.
As an example, consider one of the sexiest, most beautiful woman who ever lived....the silver screen actress Hedy LaMarre.
She was the first actress to depict the female orgasm in a non-pornographic film, she acted alongside the greatest film stars of that era, and was loved by millions.
Yet--as her hobby--she was a kind of electronics Leonardo da Vinci who formulated the theoretical underpinnings of Bluetooth and cellphone radio transmissions.
As another example, consider that the Nazis were executing Operation Wolfpack in the Atlantic, where their submarines were using a kind of radio-controlled torpedo to attack boats that were bringing supplies to Britain.
LaMarre invented a kind of jamming device--based on the player piano--that would have disabled these torpedos.
Her device was impractical at the time, but was used in it's original form 20 years later during the naval blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missle crisis. This was a good thing, as the Soviets had torpedos armed with nuclear warheads.
So, my point is that many of LaMarre's mathematics and inventions weren't useful at the time, but became useful much later when the technology advanced to a certian level.
I think it speaks to LaMarre's genius that she was several decades ahead of her time, and she had--get this--little or no formal college education in electronics or mathematics.
It makes me wonder how much genius has been stifled and smothered--snuffed out, if you will--by experts ignoring people outside their fields, who might have provided a fresh insight into problems that "everyone knew" were unsolvable.
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Re: Does math have to be useful to be worthwhile?
But a more common, narrower definition of the usefulness of mathematics is that it can be applied to predictions of our future physical sensations. In that case, as has already been said, we can never know when a piece of mathematics might turn out to be useful in the future. Since to be valid any piece of mathematics must be logically consistent with the rest of mathematics, we might say that if the physically perceived universe is itself logically consistent (as it so far seems to be) then any valid piece of mathematics will inevitably turn out to be useful at some point in the future. Maybe?
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