Quote:
Originally Posted by leon
Can I be so humble and ask what is the point of this huge array of figures, is it useful for anything, or just because they can.
Maybe I have missed something here, but I really can't see its usefulness.
Leon
|
It's because they can. It's in the field of Pure Mathematics. Pure mathematicans consider their work as a form of art judged by it's creativity and logic.
And of course they consider themselves superior to Applied Mathematicans (l'm an example of the low life
).
"Mathematicians have always had differing opinions regarding the distinction between pure and applied mathematics. One of the most famous (but perhaps misunderstood) modern examples of this debate can be found in
G.H. Hardy's
A Mathematician's Apology.
It is widely believed that Hardy considered applied mathematics to be ugly and dull. Although it is true that Hardy preferred pure mathematics, which he often compared to
painting and
poetry, Hardy saw the distinction between pure and applied mathematics to be simply: that applied mathematics sought to express
physical truth in a mathematical framework, whereas pure mathematics expressed truths that were independent of the physical world. Hardy made a separate distinction in mathematics between what he called "real" mathematics, "which has permanent aesthetic value", and "the dull and elementary parts of mathematics" that have practical use.
Hardy considered some physicists, such as
Einstein and
Dirac, to be among the "real" mathematicians, but at the time that he was writing the
Apology he also considered
general relativity and
quantum mechanics to be "useless", which allowed him to hold the opinion that only "dull" mathematics was useful. Moreover, Hardy briefly admitted that--just as the application of matrix theory and group theory to physics had come unexpectedly--the time may come where some kinds of beautiful, "real" mathematics may be useful as well."
Regards
Steven
