Zhong Chen

05/16/2005

Math to me is more of a tool than a form of art (which is how many students of math majors consider math). I think that math is useful because it can be used in real world application. Numbers to me only assume meaning when used in real world, and related to daily life. It is a very logical way of analyzing life.

Math is used in almost every field of study, however intensively or as a helpful side tool, in all fields of the sciences, including biology (e.g. calculating action potentials), chemistry (e.g. pH values and gas laws), physics, which completely uses math as its form of communication. Many math concepts would not exist if not for physicists’ ways of thinking around obstacles. Even psychologists and sociologists need intensive math for statistical information. Economics, Computer Science, and Engineering (which aims for practical, real results) are heavily dependent upon mathematics. Numbers like e, i. and pi, and matrices and series would not exist in math if the practical world required no need for them.

The reason math exists is because people need it for daily applications tracing back to history, numbers exist because people need to do bookkeeping and accounting debts, measure land and keep track of property (geometry). Math became more complicated because people started engineering projects to demonstrate the power of their civilization, such as the great pyramids. When people started to measure area and geometric shapes, then calculus came into play. This is demonstrated by Archimedes and the way he measured circles (or attempted to, until the most infinitesimally accurate partition that he could come up with, so he almost discovered calculus – he was so close, and so did Galileo, and finally Newton, “standing on the shoulders of giants” who came before him, finally came up with the method of approximating limits – they are physicists who invented new methods of representing physical phenomenon using elegant mathematics. As Particle Physics Professor Yau Wah in University of Chicago said in lecture, “the simplest, most elegant equations in mathematics are all invented by physicists” – i.e. Gauss’ Law, Einstein’s E=mc^2, Newton’s Calculus, Schrodinger’s Wave Equation (which predicts analytically and precisely, according to the wave function, the probability of dynamic system of particles), and many, many more. I believe that the understanding of math cannot be separated from the understanding the mechanisms of the universe. Math equations are a series of approximations and guesses, and physics tweaks the approximations to fit the real world, which yields profitable and beneficial results.

On a last note, this is not bullshit. It is one of the most enjoyable assignments I have had since I came to U of C. It is a rare opportunity to truly express my thoughts and what I think about a subject; all of the above are truly my opinions and the examples I used are all true, including quotes.