Mathematics as a Song

 If you will rewrite mathematics as a song, would it be a soft or a strong one? Would it be like a love song that will strum the strings of your heart? Or a boring one but filled with deep and eye-opening lyrics? Because if I were to reinvent mathematics, it will definitely be in the form of a sad song.  A sad song that will accompany you through every heartbreak, yet the same one that will clear up your confused mind.  For me, mathematics works like a sad song. At first you may not like it, and only when you need it the most will be when the lyrics will finally sink…and make sense. Eventually, you will feel like everything is related to that sad song, and you will always reverberate back to it, no matter when, no matter where.    Ain’t mathematics like this?

In the third installation of the Story of Maths, called the Frontiers of Space, Marcus du Sautoy travelled to Italy to explore the lyrics of mathematics. The first person he listened to was Piero dela Francisca. Piero was known both as a mathematician and an artist. He was famous for his Flagellation of Christ, in which he applied the concept of parallel lines meeting at a common point, thereby giving a 3D effect on his masterpiece.

In the 17^th century, Europe won the “Power House of Mathematics” award. It was during this time that mathematics in motion had been highly focused. For Rene Descartes, philosophy is the baseline of math. His most important contribution was the linkage of geometry to algebra, by using algebraic equations for geometric understanding. A Parisian mathematician, named Marin Mersenne, believed that science is the proof of God’s existence. I agree with him that science and religion is not oil and water. Because when you truly and deeply love God, you will know that the answer to these questions is the blind trust to God.  You won’t even dare to ask why; you just  follow. J Marin Mersenne was the one who conceptualized the prime numbers, and he had also popularized Pierre de Fermat’s work on the properties of numbers. Pierre de Fermat’s most prized contributions were the Last Theorem, the pattern of numberswhich says that any prime number divisible by 4 and has a remainder of 1 can be rewritten as the sum of the two squares. And did you know that ATM cards are protected by de Fermat’s very own Little theorem? It’s amazing how something so old (the idea) could last a thousand years.

The highlight of the story was the discovery of calculus by Isaac Newton…and Gottfried Leibniz. Both Newton and Leibniz had actually formulated calculus individually. Newton was the one who claimed to have discovered it first, but Leibniz was the first one who had published the work on calculus. Because of this, the two became each other’s worst enemy, and in the end, Newton won, claiming that Leibniz had committed plagiarism. Years after the death of Leibniz, it was revealed that Leibniz’s work was the better one. It’s sad to think how life’s irony could be both so amazing and deadly.  Being too self-absorbed really does nothing good. Why can’t we just give other people the chance to shine especially when we already had a taste of fame? Is it too difficult to be kind?

Furthermore, the other mathematicians that had paved the way for mathematics were Bernoulli for the Calculus of Variation, Euler for topology and popularization of the pi value, Gauss who was known as the Prince of Math for his imaginary numbers, Bolyai and his hyperbolic geometry, and lastly, Reimann’s multidimensional geometry.

Personally, I found this third episode less attracting to watch compared to the last two episodes.  The ambiance in this video was more serious and less interesting that the previous two, and the lines of Marcus du Sautoy was not as catchy as before. Nevertheless, this video had relayed its true essence, that is, to make people know mathematics better.

How would you reincarnate mathematics for better comprehension? Well, for me, it will still be that same, sad, sad song.