Sabri wrote: > Unlike most people believe, mathematics is not about numbers at > all. It is about patterns and structures.
amen, brother, amen. its also about appreciating construction techniques. i felt a hell of a lot better when i heard some joker constructed multi-dimensional version of complex numbers (Hamilton -- quaternions). sqrt(-1) was weird, but when i saw more examples of this, it felt much much better. it made the endeavour feel so much more human rather than some alien idea coursing thru the brain. did you see the NYTimes article this morning on "the use of SVD's" to analyze the Supreme Court decisions???? http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/24/science/24MATH.html incredible. here's a perfect example of how the introduction of a mathematical formulation for pattern measurement helps to obscure the real dynamic of the Court. les
