Truth, Beauty and Practical Math

In an earlier post, I discussed whether math was really real, or just made up.  I came to the conclusion that there’s a difference between the math that is implicit in the laws of logic, and the math that people happen to study and learn. The difference is that the latter is much much smaller than the former.

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Is Math Really Important?

I met someone after church the other day, and the conversation went like this

  • Someone: And what’s your speciality?
  • Me: Mathematics
  • Someone: So, you teach in the University?
  • Me: No, why should I be teaching in the University just because I specialise in mathematics?

There seems to be a general impression (and I’m deliberately overstating this) that the only use for math is to teach it. Even some teachers believe this, apparently. Here’s another conversation I had with someone at a bus stop :

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