Monday, September 09, 2013

Math and Logic


Mathematics is an invention or discovery ? Bill Thurston, a famous topologist from Berkeley , said that a mathematician is one who helps in the human understanding of mathematics, he endorsing the view that mathematics is divine and that it resides entirely in the human mind. All the same, we know that mathematicians conceived of black holes long before physicists actually found them, even when certain important problems in mathematics – and, more importantly, their solutions – belonging to the so-called low-dimensional topology were motivated by certain considerations arising in theoretical physics! This dual nature of mathematics combining in itself elements of art and science is singularly unique to the practice of mathematics .....