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aamukherjee:

:

Despite what most people suppose, many profound mathematical ideas don’t require advanced skills to appreciate. One can develop a fairly good understanding of the power and elegance of calculus, say, without actually being able to use it to solve scientific or engineering problems.

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, “When will I use this?”

Call me an optimist but I believe that humans are innately attracted to mathematics.

Not arithmetic, not number-crunching, but mathematics.

What the difference? Well, that’s practically the same as asking what’s the difference between spelling and literature: the breadth and depth of ideas that encompass what maths is are destroyed if we limit it to just understanding addition and subtraction. 

To be fair it’s difficult to define maths and often the abstract nature of the subject can scare people. But, at its heart, maths is a study of patterns. Stretching from basic algebra and geometry to topology and calculus, maths provides an avenue to examine things and draw conclusions (read: proofs) about them. And being able to prove stuff is really cool. 

I think one of the reasons that maths is so under-appreciated is because of how it’s taught at schools where the main focuses are arithmetic drills and preparing for tests. It’s very similar, in many ways, to training for an important football match. Sure, you’re only doing long and repetitive drills, but its all to prepare for the main event. And, in this case,  I do fell the main event is worth the wait.

(via scinerds)