Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Time Warner cable programming has been out here since Tuesday. Tired of reading and plinking on my guitar, for entertainment I downloaded an interesting series while at the office - The Story of Maths, with Marcus du Sautoy.
It is about the history of mathematical discoveries. I found it fascinating until the end of the third episode. Then it got depressing.
I used to think the beauty of math was that it was so ordered and universal and was exempt from the chaos of human experience. It was kind of a universal refuge for me. It was a place where the world made sense. There were immutable laws.
Apparently, the laws aren't immutable. du Sautoy showed Euler's demonstration that trigonometry only works in a 2 dimensional world. You start thinking about 3 dimensions and the shortest distance between two points is no longer a straight line, the angles of a triangle do not add up to 180. (you smart guys probably already know this. It was news to me.) When you get to 4 dimensions all heck breaks loose. Fifth dimension - forget about it. It's chaos.
There is no refuge, there is no order.
The Story of Maths - Top Documentary Films |
As the # of dimensions goes up the rules just more complicated. It's not chaotic just more complex.
Some further good reads are 'Flatland' and 'Sphereland'