![]() Pi is infinite and, by definition, unknowable. “There’s a beauty about it – a beautiful dichotomy or tension.” “We know a lot about Pi, but we really don't know anything about Pi,” says Dr Britz. “Not only is it linked to every circle, but Pi sometimes pops up in formulas that have nothing to do with circles, like in probability and calculus.”ĭespite being the most famous number (International Pi Day is held annually on 14 March, 3.14 in American dating), there is a lot of mystery around it. “When you look into other aspects of nature, you will suddenly find Pi everywhere,” says Dr Britz. “The interwovenness of maths and beauty is itself beautiful to me,” says Dr Britz. Many mathematical concepts exhibit a similar harmony between pattern and surprise, elegance and chaos, truth and mystery. ![]() “Patterned and ordered sounds with a touch of the unexpected can have added personality, charm and depth.” “This same idea can be seen in music,” says Dr Britz. However, a feature that breaks up the symmetry in a small, interesting or surprising way – such as a beauty spot – adds to the beauty. We feel delight and excitement.”įor example, humans perceive symmetrical faces as beautiful. “When we spot something deviating from a pattern – when there’s a touch of the unexpected – our brains reward us once again. “Our brains reward us when we recognise patterns, whether this is seeing symmetry, organising parts of a whole, or puzzle-solving,” he says. In 2018, Dr Britz gave a TEDx talk on the Mathematics of Emotion, where he used recent studies on maths and emotions to touch on how maths might help explain emotions, like beauty. Here, Dr Britz shares some of his favourite connections between maths and beauty. Other times, it’s the thought processes that make your mind turn in nice ways, the emotions that you get, or just working in the flow – like getting lost in a good book.” “Sometimes, the beauty and enjoyment of maths is in the concepts, or in the results, or in the explanations. I’ve loved it ever since I was a little kid. “From a personal point of view, maths is just really fun to do. He also finds beauty in the mathematical process. While combinatorics sits within pure mathematics, Dr Britz has always been drawn to the philosophical questions about mathematics. “The two are intertwined.”ĭr Britz works in combinatorics, a field focused on complex counting and puzzle solving. “Maths is not only seen as beautiful – beauty is also mathematical,” says Dr Thomas Britz, a lecturer in UNSW Science’s School of Mathematics & Statistics. It can help explain the way galaxies spiral, a seashell curves, patterns replicate, and rivers bend.Įven subjective emotions, like what we find beautiful, can have mathematic explanations. Mathematics is visible everywhere in nature, even where we are not expecting it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |