XVII: A Traveller`s Diary.

Ch-XVII :  A Traveller`s Diary.
                [Contd. A Journey to the Wonderland of Math.by Ajay Kumar Chauduuri]

                 Let us take a break of journey to the wonderland of math.Our journey commenced from Ishango, an obscure place near the headwaters of the river Nile in the so called dark continent of Africa, where we found tally marks, some meaningful scratches, on the lower leg bone of baboon believed to be 20,000 years old, suggesting some mathematical concept. This is our first precious discovery during our journey. Our mission ended in the excursion to the furthest end of the observable universe by riding the vehicle of space science powered by mathematics.

            We are surprised to know that the idea of counting or crude mathematical concept was germinated even in the minds of our hunter ancestors for immense need. They developed counting system much before they could master the technique of writing. Afterwards many millennia have passed, new numerals and counting systems came into being in different ancient civilizations spreading almost all over the world until and finally we invented our 20^th century international binary number system for computers.

            We are awe struck by the discovery that the nature also has its own number system. Fibonacci numbers, as we have seen earlier, are considered to be the nature’s numbers. It appears everywhere in nature from the leaf arrangements in plants to the pattern of florets of flowers, in vegetables, in fruits, seed heads, animal bodies, even in our human bodies.

            Another amazing number, the Golden Ratio occurs widely in designs and beauties of nature. There are strong evidences to believe that our body follows the Fibonacci number and also the Golden Ratio. A beautiful face has its secrets in obeying the Golden Mean. If we look closely at the animal world, we will be surprised to know the Golden Ratio play an important role behind their charm and beauties.

             The nature is a perennial source of inspirations to us for creating beautiful things, be it a painting, sculpture or architecture. We owe greatly to the nature for getting aesthetic sense from it. Many artists of world fame had utilized the Golden Ratio to achieve beauty, balance and harmony in their priceless works of art.

          We may also be surprised to find the application of Golden Ratio in the construction marvels of many famous monuments like, the gigantic pyramid of Egypt, the exotic beauty in spotless white marbles of Taj Mahal in India, the technological marvel of steel in Eiffel Tower in Pairs and many many others.

         In fact, on a large perspective it is found that this divine ratio has a great role in functioning of this vast universe. But every phenomenon cannot be explained by Fibonacci numbers and Golden Ratio or by our up till known mathematical concept, yet the universe is definitely guided by some mathematical rules which are beyond our reach.

         If we look closely to the natural world we can realise that there are some wonderful regularities or pattern in them, such as spirals of sea-shell, swirl of petals of rose and other flowers, galaxy spirals etc. The spots and stripes on the animal skins are really amazing. Look at the skins of tigers, zebras, giraffes, guinea fowls, owls for instances.

            The delicate designs, colours and beauties of these patterns are so intricate that the great artists to struggle hard to imitate.

            These spots and stripes can be explained by application of mathematics to biology there by giving birth to a new subject “Biomathematics.”

            Sometimes we are deceived by our eyes and misled or even puzzled by our mind when it interprets things of this visual world in a different way far away from reality. We call this phenomenon “Illusions”. For example, the mirage in a desert is a death- trapping dreaded illusion.

Many artists, scientists and mathematicians have made fun by creating various types of illusions. Though illusions have bizarre characteristics, yet they obey some mathematical rules.

          Is there any relation between music and math? The answer is “Yes, of course”. The basic characteristics of music, rather musical sound like rhythm, harmony, melody etc. are very much mathematical.

         In fact, music is essentially a mathematical game of only 12 notes. A composer of music may combine these notes in fascinating ways to create hundreds or even thousands of wonderful melodies of his or her choice. This job of combination is done by math while musician’s aesthetic sense creates the melody and hence music is more an art than only mathematics.

           On the threshold of the twenty first century, science has endowed our living with comfort, pleasure, various means of recreation, diagnostic and therapeutic technique for treating and healing our ailments, and what not!

           But these gifts of science to us are in a sense, gift of math in disguise; for there is an important role of math behind every science. Even mathematical exploration of the cosmos which started in the 20^th century has helped us to know this universe in a better way.

           So at the end of our journey to the wonder land of Math, the impression we bring home is: the world of math is really full of wonders and we may say finally, “Everything in this universe is made of math including you and I”. Paul Dirac had rightly said, “God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.”

        A nagging question often perplexes us, “should everyone must know math to cope with this mathematically ruled world where he is living? Equally embarrassing another question, ”Is math for all or for a selected few? The answer to the first question depends on the perspective of your view about the need of math in everyday life or otherwise.

         If by “math” you mean to manipulate numbers mentally or to perform simple calculations, then every one of us need it in our daily life.

        If you mean by “math”, the ability to solve complicated equations or crack hard problems then most of us not need it. Architects, engineers, scientists and any one aspiring for such professions need it.

       However if “math” means ability to compare, to estimate, to find patterns etc. then, yes, everyone needs it. Even the great artists, musicians have made use of math in their marvelous aesthetic works.

In our everyday life, we are using math every now and then either knowingly or unknowingly.

For example, say, a lawn tennis player to negotiate a ball sent to him or her by the rival player, calculate instantly and instinctively, how fast and from which direction it is coming; thereby adjust his or her position accordingly, so that it can be bounced back properly without missing or hurting himself or herself.

             To go upstairs of a building, some sort of calculations is required for our strides for safely going up to the destination.

            Even a baby in its early days uses math to tune with its surroundings overcoming hurdles.

It will be superfluous to say that there are innumerable such examples in our everyday life where we use math either consciously or unknowingly. These are not formal pen-and-paper math that we learn in our school days. It is the in-built math that is innate in us that we use in every day.

In our society, success in math is equated with smart, talented and as divine gift while failure is interpreted as lack of intelligence and manifestations of dullness. Many people think there is a mysterious ‘math gene’ which someone either may possess or may not. What’s more some people believe that it they don’t have the math gene, their kids won’t have either. Unfortunately, this misconception is perpetuated down through the generations.

Sometimes people ask, “Is math for all or for a selected few?” or more explicitly, “Does one have to be a genius to do mathematics?”

The answer is an emphatic ‘No’. In order to make good and useful contribution to math, one does not need some sort of ‘genius gene’ that spontaneously generates miraculous deep insights, power to crack hardest problems or grit to find elegant solutions of previously seemed unsolvable equations or other supernatural abilities.

              To be charmed with music, one need not be a great musician or to appreciate an art-work, it is not required to be a good artist. Likewise, though each one of us is not a great scientist, we apply the principles of science every now and then in our everyday life. Hence math is not only for mathematicians but for all.Though it is seemingly paradoxical,yet I can convincingly say that to be acquainted with exhilarating ideas of mathematical thoughts will be as refreshing as a cold breeze in hot summer days.

           In the world of modern math we do have wonderful achievement, spectacular result and deep insight in the subject; but they are the hard-won and cumulative achievements of years, decades or even centuries of steady work and progress of many good and great mathematicians.

          Finally I can say, the objective of math is not to secure highest ranking, highest score or highest numbers of prizes and awards; Instead, the aim should be to increase understanding of math and to contribute to its developments and applications. For these tasks math needs interest and devotion to the subject of mathematics. 
        A Disclaimer:At the end of journey to the land of math,we have realised that it is an inconceivably vast wondrous land,a treasure trove of priceless mathematical thoughts.It is a land where mysteries are strewn here and there.Its many regions are still unexplored by us. There are also large tracts of this land remain inaccessible to human beings till now.We know all natural phenomena are governed by mathematical rules but we can explain only a few of them mathematically ,rest are obscured. It is only because these obscured rules are hidden somewhere in that inaccessible tract.
           So a venture to pen a fascinating travelogue about such a wonderland, by a humble traveller like me, is an audacious task. The legendary scientist of the 20th.century Albert Einstein once said,"Do not worry too much about your difficulties in mathematics,I can assure you that mine are still greater". Sharing this jocund quote, I like to share my interest as well as ignorance with the readers and issue a disclaimer:I do not claim to be competent enough in dealing with the matters I strove to write in this travelogue.There are many scholars and distinguished personalities in these fields. So I appologise to them for intruding in their dominion. 

From the intrinsic evidence of creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician – Sir James Jeans.