Translations of Encyclopedia about Mathematics

Mathematics

Some of us may find mathematics difficult where others of us a passion. Mathematics can be found in our everyday lives aand is a subject which we cannot avoid: in our purchases, in cooking ingredients, when making automobiles, the stock market - every time anything is given a value, measured or calculated. Its practical application is indisputable. So what is mathematics after all?

Mathematics is a science of numbers, equations, functions aand graphs aand its most important components are the individual, purely mathematical fields, such as arithmetic, algebra, mathematical analyses aand geometry.

If we pose the question what at all mathematics is, we will certainly invoke a passionate discussion even among philosophers. As the Frenchman Jean-Baptist le Rond d¢ Alembert once said: "Mathematics is a type of game which helps us discover the secrets of nature but which keeps us in total darkness."

This explanation brings us to the very heart of the matter because mathematics is an artificial product; a tool created by man itself. It of itself is not able to pass any judgement concerning the world aand one can spend many years solving numerous mathematical tasks while learning absolutely nothing of the world around them. Instead, one can find oneself "drowning in their own gravy" because the system of tools used in mathematics was invented by mankind itself. However, if we use mathematics to help us organise the world in a better way, it can serve as a great scientific tool. It can also help to shed light on the previously mentioned darkness of knowledge.

With the help of mathematics, researchers aand scientists began to prove scientific knowledge around the 16^th century. Today, every scientific assertion requires proof. "From the moment when mankind set out the task to prove the most simplest of assertions, it was shown that many of them were proven wrong," commented Bertraand Russel (1872-1970), a British philosopher aand mathematician. This statement hit the hammer on the nail because many assertions which were considered as more than true have now been proved untenable.

Many earlier beliefs about the world relied on faith, speculation aand dubitation. If Galieleo Galilei were not able to prove his beliefs about the solar system, then, next to the church’s assertion that the sun revolves around the earth, his statement that in fact the earth revolves around the sun would be nothing more than heresy.

Bertraand Russel referred to mathematics as "the only science in which we never know what we are talking about aand never know whether that which we assert is actually true." This is because that which is "true" can only relate to reality.

In practice aand experience, mathematics becomes useful the moment when it is applied to reality. In the end, who would be interested in the fact that two times two equals four if someone were to propose that two times two tastes like oranges, which we would rather prefer. In this case, it would be nothing more than a game of numbers aand use of free time.

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