Math Fun

“Pure Mathematics is in it’s way, the poetry of logical ideas.”

When one starts thinking about Mathematics, or Math for short, he/she is known to be introduced to a separate world on it’s own. Yes, this is the power and vastness of Math. Right from pre-elementary school, students face the ‘wrath of Math’, as some say, but what I see in the Math is just too beautiful. The world of Math yet contains many depths to be discovered, and what we know of it may just be a preview.

This blog is intended to give you a really short glance at what exactly does Math mean in our lives, its significance along with a few examples.

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When we start talking, debating or arguing about a certain topic, one of the essential keys always remains so as to know what the topic means exactly in your terms, using the right words. The meaning of the word ‘Mathematics’ is itself a task on its own, just like what it contains. Asked anyone the meaning of this, we get to hear – “Yeah, its all about numbers, variables, angles, squares, roots and god knows what else.” Searched by the defined meaning, we get, “Math is the abstract quantity of science and space, either as abstract concepts (known as ‘Pure’ Mathematics), or as applied to other disciplines such as physics and engineering (known as ‘Applied’ Mathematics). The true meaning of Math, I believe, is yet to be discovered and framed into known and meaningful words.

Math is used very commonly in our daily lives. The first and the most commonly heard branch is Algebra, which is commonly associated with variables, etc. It is this branch of Math which deals with the finding of literals and substituting values. The common variable ‘x’, which has known to destroy the lives of many students when they can’t find it in a given problem, is the most commonly enjoyed concept by professionals and experts in this branch.

Next, we have geometry, which is another specialty of Math. The common 2D figures such as squares, triangles and circles appear easy at first sight, but one must try to find out what lies before the discovery of these figures and their increasing complexity with dimensions.

Consider this: If you take a pencil and draw a line on a sheet of paper, this is actually a 1D (ie, 1 Dimensional) figure. Now draw two more equal lines from the two end points of the 1D line, and join the extended ones. This becomes a square, which is a 2D figure. Draw and other square just beside it, overlapping the first and join the four corners. This becomes a cube, which is 3D in nature. Similarly, it is estimated that one can draw unto infinite such dimensions.

For figures such as squares, we know that all the sides are equal and the area of such a figure is given as the square of the side. As for triangles, they are the next step in the 2D (polygon) figure pyramid and have three sides, which maybe equal or unequal. We also have a useful formula to calculate the area of an equilateral triangle (a triangle with equal sides) given as a quarter of the product of the square root of 3 and the square of the side, ie 1/4(root.3*side sq.). Another famous formula meant for right angled triangles, discovered by Sir Pythagoras between 1900-1600 BC, states that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides of a right angled triangle. Then we have a special figure – the circle. A circle does not have a single straight line, like the figures mentioned above, and hence does not fall under the category of polygons. Considering the topic of circles, one can never ignore the famous constant ‘Pi’, invented by William Jones. It is equal to 22/7 fractionally, or 3.141 decimally. The Pi, however is just an estimated fraction, considering multiple cases. The actual value exceeds up to 3.7 trillion digits.

Math is used in our daily lives for various applications like calculating money, totalling expenses, finding aggregates etc.

These are just a few topics, elementary ones, you could say. Emphasizing on what I have said before, you could go on endlessly explaining each branch of Math, from Trigonometry to Calculus. Each branch of Math is to be thought as a separate paradise on it’s own, rather than just a sub-unit.

Well, as for now, that’s all I’ve got for an intro into this magnificent topic. I would also love to suggest that before expressing negative views on subjects like Math (most commonly), please do try to find out what lies beyond what we just call Math.