Mathematics often gets a bad press. Describing someone as 'calculating'
or 'rational' is hardly as flattering as being labelled 'artistic' or
'creative' and mathematicians in movies or novels are often portrayed as
social misfits who rarely get the guy or girl. No wonder some folks say
'oh I don't care for mathematics, I was never any good at it' with a
wistful sense of pride.
Yet professional mathematicians talk of the subject differently. They
look for elegant solutions to problems, revel in playing around with
mathematical ideas and talk of the creative nature of mathematics. As
the Russian mathematician Sophia Kovalevskaya said It is impossible to
be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.
So why is there such a gap between the views of everyday folks and
professional mathematicians? Part of the problem lies in how most of us
were taught mathematics in school. The mathematics served up there is
presented as a series of de-contextualised, abstract ideas, wrested from
the human struggles and interactions that gave birth to the ideas.
Through looking at some of the history of mathematics, psychological
studies into how we come to know mathematics and key ideas in
mathematics itself, the intent of this book is, if not to make the
reader fall in love with mathematics, then at least to come to
understand its nature a little better, and perhaps care a little more
for it. In short, this book explores the human side of maths.
