Ask a Mathematician

[Disagreeable]

Polymath, here is my question to you:

Was Bertrand Russell right when he said: 'Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.' ?

[Fireball]

#notpolymath257

I agree with Russel. There is true beauty in mathematics, but it took me a long time of working with it to see it. Mainly because you have to do a lot of it to understand. And that requires beating your brains on it, maybe for years.

[polymath257]

Polymath, here is my question to you:

Was Bertrand Russell right when he said: 'Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.' ?

My only nitpick is whether it possesses truth.

But yes, absolutely, it possesses beauty. In fact, that is the very essence of good math.

According to G H Hardy:

"Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics"

The sad part is that so few people are ever able to see that amazing beauty. They get stuck in the first steps of arithmetic and algebra. Those are, in some ways, like learning to read. Real math is beautiful literature and too many people are struggling to sound out the words.