Related papers: Boring mathematics, artistes pompiers and impressi…
The fundamental role of mathematics as an inspiration for artists, but also as a tool for art creation, is presented in this paper following different art fields, like architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, literature and poetry,…
Mathematical understanding is built in many ways. Among these, illustration has been a companion and tool for research for as long as research has taken place. We use the term illustration to encompass any way one might bring a mathematical…
In their account of theory change in logic, Aberdein and Read distinguish 'glorious' from 'inglorious' revolutions--only the former preserves all 'the key components of a theory' [1]. A widespread view, expressed in these terms, is that…
An age-old controversy in mathematics concerns the necessity and the possibility of constructive proofs. The controversy has been rekindled by recent advances which demonstrate the feasibility of a fully constructive mathematics. This…
This research extends a method previously applied to music and philosophy,representing the evolution of art as a time-series where relations like dialectics are measured quantitatively. For that, a corpus of paintings of 12 well-known…
Arithmetic dynamics is the study of number theoretic properties of dynamical systems. A relatively new field, it draws inspiration partly from dynamical analogues of theorems and conjectures in classical arithmetic geometry, and partly from…
Many mathematicians find mathematics aesthetically beautiful and even comparable to art forms such as music or painting. On the other hand, every year a great number of school students leave mathematics with total disillusionment and…
Mathematical challenges punctuate the history of early modern mathematics. While cultural historians have attempted to contextualize these challenges among contemporary practices, in particular duels or advertisements in a competitive…
The classical platonist/formalist dilemma in philosophy of mathematics can be expressed in lay terms as a deceptively naive question: is new mathematics discovered or invented? Using an example from my own mathematical life, I argue that…
Monsters lurk within mathematical as well as literary haunts. I propose to trace some pathways between these two monstrous habitats. I start from Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's influential account of monster culture and explore how well…
This study examines the potential of using math-themed postage stamps in mathematics lessons as a tool to engage students and integrate the subject with history, art, and culture. Since the first mathematical stamps appeared in the early…
The unique and beautiful character of certain mathematical results and proofs is often considered one of the most gratifying aspects of engaging with mathematics. We study whether this perception of mathematical arguments having an…
The paper is an introduction to intuitionistic mathematics.
This paper examines various methods and ideas for humanizing mathematics. The term 'humanizing mathematics' which includes elements of 'aesthetic mathematics' refers to approaches that emphasize the aesthetic, philosophical, and subjective…
Since its existence, the computer tool has often supported mathematicians, whether it is to implement an approximation method (numerical calculation of a root, of an integral, ...) or to simulate a phenomenon (geometric in nature,…
In this paper we discuss how teaching of mathematics for middle school and high school students can be improved dramatically when motivation of concepts and ideas is done through the classical problems and the history of mathematics. This…
Mathematical concepts and results have often been given a long history, stretching far back in time. Yet recent work in the history of mathematics has tended to focus on local topics, over a short term-scale, and on the study of ephemeral…
This paper concerns the emergence of modern mathematical statistics in France after the First World War. Emile Borel's achievements are presented, and especially his creation of two institutions where mathematical statistics was developed:…
"Mathematicians, like physicists, are pushed by a strong fascination. Research in mathematics is hard, it is intellectually painful even if it is rewarding, and you would not do it without some strong urge." [D. Ruelle]. We shall give some…
A few remarks on how mathematics quests for freedom.