{"id":14851,"date":"2013-09-17T15:54:42","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T15:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/2013\/09\/17\/as-a-mathematician-i-can-attest-that-my-field-is\/"},"modified":"2013-09-17T15:54:42","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T15:54:42","slug":"as-a-mathematician-i-can-attest-that-my-field-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/2013\/09\/17\/as-a-mathematician-i-can-attest-that-my-field-is\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>As a mathematician, I can attest that my field is really about ideas above anything else. Ideas that inform our existence, that permeate our universe and beyond, that can surprise and enthrall. Perhaps the most intriguing of these is the way infinity is harnessed to deal with the finite, in everything from fractals to calculus\u2026 . Despite what most people suppose, many profound mathematical ideas don\u2019t require advanced skills to appreciate\u2026 .Think of it this way: you can appreciate art without acquiring the ability to paint, or enjoy a symphony without being able to read music. Math also deserves to be enjoyed for its own sake, without being constantly subjected to the question, \u201cWhen will I use this?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class='attribution'>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/16\/opinion\/how-to-fall-in-love-with-math.html?_r=0\">How to fall in love with math<\/a>, which has given us such elegant wonders as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/2012\/08\/07\/how-big-is-infinity-ted-ed\/\">infinity<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/18\/remembering-benoit-madelbrot\/\">fractals<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/26\/science-religion-and-the-big-bang-minute-physics\/\">the Big Bang<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Complement with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/2012\/09\/25\/measurement-paul-lockhart\/\">Paul Lockhart\u2019s manifesto for the whimsy of math<\/a>\u00a0and autistic savant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/05\/daniel-tammet-thinking-in-numbers\/\">Daniel Tammet on the poetry of numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/explore.noodle.org\/\">explore-blog<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a mathematician, I can attest that my field is really about ideas above anything else. Ideas that inform our existence, that permeate our universe and beyond, that can surprise and enthrall. Perhaps the most intriguing of these is the way infinity is harnessed to deal with the finite, in everything from fractals to calculus\u2026 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/2013\/09\/17\/as-a-mathematician-i-can-attest-that-my-field-is\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6365,6364,1221],"class_list":["post-14851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-again-i-keep-coming-back-to-how-much-i-miss-playing-with-numbers","tag-maths","tag-yup","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.augustwritesabook.com\/tumblr-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}