- #1
Ackbach
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This is a bit of an odd problem - more philosophical, perhaps. I've been reading The Art of Mathematics, by Jerry P. King, and the author points out that mathematicians do mathematics for aesthetic reasons - for beauty. They see beauty in the mathematics that they do. My question is this: what is the nature of this beauty? What constitutes a "beautiful proof"? What is a "beautiful paper"? It seems to me that many mathematicians intuitively know that a result is beautiful, but have a hard time explaining why it's beautiful.
A few of my thoughts:
1. The medievals thought of beauty as "that which has form, harmony, and complexity". While this seems a great definition for the arts, I'm not so sure it's adequate for mathematics, though it might have some relevance. What's your opinion?
2. If a theorem assumes little and proves a lot (assuming it's valid!), that's usually considered beautiful, right?
3. If there's a clever construction in the proof, that's considered beautiful, right?
4. Is "elegant" a synonym for "beautiful" in mathematics? Baby Rudin has many "elegant" approaches to proofs, supposedly, but
5. Is the "elegant" approach necessarily the most pedagogical?
6. How can we help students see the beauty in mathematics?
There's a relevant question on Math.SE here. There is, interestingly, a wiki on this as well.
A few of my thoughts:
1. The medievals thought of beauty as "that which has form, harmony, and complexity". While this seems a great definition for the arts, I'm not so sure it's adequate for mathematics, though it might have some relevance. What's your opinion?
2. If a theorem assumes little and proves a lot (assuming it's valid!), that's usually considered beautiful, right?
3. If there's a clever construction in the proof, that's considered beautiful, right?
4. Is "elegant" a synonym for "beautiful" in mathematics? Baby Rudin has many "elegant" approaches to proofs, supposedly, but
5. Is the "elegant" approach necessarily the most pedagogical?
6. How can we help students see the beauty in mathematics?
There's a relevant question on Math.SE here. There is, interestingly, a wiki on this as well.