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Lul Thyme
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Quebec, Canada
Aug 2000
time: 05:34
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Civman, so did number theorist said about the divisibility properties of integers... quote Hardy, one of the greatest of all time :
"There is one comforting conclusion which is easy for a real mathematician. Real mathematics has no effects on war. No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years. "--G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology, p. 140. (Written around 1940, this was an uncanny precursor to nuclear weaponry. )
Today cryptography and coding theory are basically reduced to number theory. Being a code person is being a number theorist.
My point is that it not always clear that something will never have any applications, or what they will be.
Since mathematics is the most constructive of human research (where each generation keeps the most from previous generations), that could mean that no mathematical research really is trivial...
I will quote Hardy again on this subject
"(Speaking with respect to mathematical achievement) ... In these days of conflict between ancient and modern studies, there must surely be something to be said for a study which did not begin with Pythagoras, and will not end with Einstein, but is the oldest and the youngest of all."--G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
"Immortality may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean."--G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
"(Speaking with respect to mathematical achievement) ... What we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence; and to have produced anything of the slightest permanent interest, whether it be a copy of verses or a geometrical theorem, is to have done something utterly beyond the powers of the vast majority of men."--G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
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Lul Thyme
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Quebec, Canada
Aug 2000
time: 05:34
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quote:
Originally posted by TCO
Yes. I'm differentiating between mathematical research and techniquest that are more sophisticated than what one gets first couple years of uni as an engineer, but are still in the lexicon. |
Well it depends on old you mean historically.
Number theory is probably the oldest of them all...
Analysis is pretty old (18th century depending on you count)...
Combinatorial structures have been present in the form of mathematical "games" for a very long time...
Abstract Algebra probably end of 18th century...
Topology and Set Theory are more recent... (end of 19th?)
Logic and some of Geometry is also VERY old, although the modern foundations are recent...
The best example in this regard is probably Number Theory. Infinitude of primes, Euclid's Algorithm are all VERY old (Euclid of course), but most people, even those who took Linear Algebra, Calculus and what not would probably not know about them, and they would be considered "higher" math, while I can explain them to most 10 years old in a matter of minutes...
Thats why vesayen was wrong. Higher math does not mean complicated, and a lot of "higher math" at least conceptually can be explained to almost anybody. (Lots of basic number theory, graph theory, set theory, combinatorics, even some abstract algebra!)
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Lul Thyme
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Quebec, Canada
Aug 2000
time: 05:34
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quote:
Originally posted by TCO
what is stochastic calculus and how is it useful in finance? |
I never mentionned it, so dunno why you ask...
Everything basic in Computer Science can be as a rather direct application of mathematical principles, as far as Im concerned.
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Lul Thyme
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Quebec, Canada
Aug 2000
time: 05:34
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quote:
Originally posted by TCO
hmm...I sense wonder but cannot describe it. |
I wasnt sure what you were saying so I didnt answer...
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Guynemer
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GOOD GOD, Y'ALL!
...couldn't resist...
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03-04-2005 15:06
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