Timothy Gowers: The Importance of Mathematics (Part 1)

[INMATE2468]

"Math is in some sense the language of logical ideas" - Albert Einstein

[idster7]

there is a disproportionate amount of people with their hands on their faces in the audience of mathematicians.

[tezukablackjack]

terence tao at 2:56

[dedanoe]

@hwnzero i have a better proposal instead of drawing the circle with x and y linear axis draw it with only x circular axis and place +1 left, -1 right, infinity up and zero down. the product of every two opposite numbers against the center of the circle is same as product of any two others. instead of tripping the universe step-by-step walk it in radian-by-radian. infinity in my math is in a way finite. it is merely analogy for pi/2.

[dedanoe]

@hwnzero 1^0 = ? well 1 = infinity times zero then zero is 1 over infinity and then 1^0 is 1^(1 over infinity) which is taking infinite root of USA One = MKD Eden = Math 1. infinite root of 1 is

cos(2 k pi / infinity) + i sin(2 k pi/infinity) with k form 0, 1, 2 to infinity

it is set of all the Edens (1_1, 1_2, 1_3,...)

not only that 1 is infinity x 0 but 1 is also infinity^2 x 0^2 where infinity^2 = infinity/zero = large unit of impossible and 0^2 = 0/infinity = small unit of impossible

[dedanoe]

1^0 is not 1. would you like proof for it? 1^0 is 1^(1/infinity) is infinite number of infinite roots of 1 is the set of every 1... certainly in case 1 is not the only 1.

[ja524309]

@dedanoe Are we really have this conversation right now, are we really. Jesus Christ.

[infantileretard]

Black-Scholes; "shoals" not "skoles".

[nahaymath]

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

(humor)

I have seen far too many people be NOT practical by ignorantly calling many mathematical activities "too theoretical" or "too abstract" and "not practical", but then wasting a tremendous amount of time and energy because they end up having to re-do the so-called "impractical" abstract "pure" math, anyway.

In the end, the most abstract math CAN be made the MOST practical activity of all.

[Neueregel]

interesting lecture. Tim rocks.

[papcyrill]

i still believe that the maths is the most important science!!! everything has to do woth maths!!! i put my hat off before mathematicians!!!

[fc007]

Message posted 3/14/2010:

Happy TT day

[aristotledixit]

I guess that in freudian terms the title of this address translates into:"the importance of my penis"

[MrGooseberries]

@aristotledixit hahaha very funny

[aristotledixit]

@MrGooseberries Thanks! It's just that I can't stand the (so british) pompuous arrogance that is emanating from his lecture...As a matter of fact this very brilliant guy seems to have forgotten what Shakespeare said:

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool"

And anyway the only useful thing one needs to know about Mathematics is Gödel's theorem

[MrGooseberries]

@aristotledixit I am actually a maths student at Cambridge - the same university as Tim Gowers. Unfortunatley, there is a lot of competitive people who feel the need to show how clever they are (not all though). I think wherever you go you'll find some lecturers who just think they're too important to teach.

As for pompous arrogance, I think he's the posh eton type so it's no surprise.

[aristotledixit]

@MrGooseberries And I'm just a humble statistician from France (Bourbaki's country :)). Glad to meet you (even in such strange circumstances).

Good luck with "L'importance des mathématiques"

regards

[mg0876]

@MrGooseberries You're making an ignorant assumption. It says on his Wikipedia page that he was a "King's Scholar" at Eton, and they're often from backgrounds that aren't "posh". It also says on Wikipedia that the "King's Scholars" are a minority at the school so they probably aren't as much "the posh Eton type". Besides, Eton is a charity.

[Bobfis341]

@MrGooseberries "I think he's the posh eton type"? You don't deserve to lick the woodlouse crap off his shoes, making such a gruff decision on something which you choose to believe because you're so jealous. I think you're the type whose clever way to burgle a house is to get yourself posted through its letterbox. <-- Now I don't think assumptions are your cup of bovril, are they?

[FSMGauss]

he will be one of my lecturers soon, looking forward to it after seeing this (well i was anyway, but you get the idea).

thanks for uploading.

[mg0876]

thats my dad!

[maxjamesorgans]

are you John or Richard?

[mg0876]

@maxjamesorgans No. I'm Madeline.

[maxjamesorgans]

@mg0876 oh cool

[PeelTower]

If I wasn't already studying mathematics and didn't know how interesting it was, I'd never do it as a result of listening to this crashing bore. The question is moronic anyway. Any tradesman knows why mathematics is important.

[correodeadolfo]

I think everyone knows how important Math is, but still most people find this lecture interesting and worth watching. Maybe you are missing something others aren't. Thanks for commenting.

[PeelTower]

"Most people?" You can't possibly know that. Thanks for the thanks for my comment.

[mbenoni7]

He's not defending arithmetic, he's defending the highly abstract mathematics that everybody in that room is working on.

[mg0876]

@mbenoni7 Yes exactly. Obviously PeelTower doesn't understand that.

[politicalair]

I disagree. Just because the question is moronic, doesn't mean it should be ignored because mathematicians get asked it every day. I'm not talking about high school dropout who doesn't have the patience for "crashing bores" but college students in majors (who presumably already have the patience for this kind of man) that only have to take Calculus II and no more like business, economics, even computer science.

[PeelTower]

One of the things I learned about making models in mathematics is that certain assumptions are often necessary. However, these assumptions must be reasonable. May I ask by what reasoning you make an assumption that I am a college drop out?

The question is rhetorical, you don't know and you can't know....and you happen to be wrong too. It might have been correct by mere chance but it would have been no more reasonable if it were, which it isn't.

[efcashypclcopm]

well not everyone does, besides the room is full of journalists... so his speech

[taitusmaximus87]

@PeelTower so, which tradesman uses the resolution of singularities from algebraic geometry in there work?Presumably everyone knows that...

[PeelTower]

I find preambles like this one incredibly irritating. Instead of telling everyone assembled why he his nervous yet honoured and oh so humble, why doesn't he just get on with the subject.

And if I hear one more introduction like: " Of course Prof so and so needs no introduction" then followed by a long introduction, I will scream. Mathematics should be concise and so should those who talk about it. You aren't charming or witty. I don't want a bad stand up. I want "why mathematics is important" OK

[politicalair]

I don't know about you but I only find false humility, like from George W. Bush, irritating. True humility coming from this man I have a ton of patience for. It's part of the whole absent minded genius thing. Some girls find it rather cute.

[sideral]

The actual introduction didn't last more than 1 minute.. do you call this a long introduction?

[malcolmbryant]

@PeelTower

Good point, Comment should follow content.

[McConsumer]

hahah I was like " hey, I can name a theory proved in the last 30 years" Then he said "excluding Fermat's..." Now I'm sad.

[grandolddrummer]

Four Color Theorem. 1976, I think.

[DrBPhD]

As far as I know, some mathematicians do not consider that as proven since the proof (or "proof" depending on one's position in this) relies strongly on results generated by a computer.

[grandolddrummer]

Oh wait, I was thinking 50 years for some reason. Hmm, oh well.

[alarrain83]

Great, by all means amazing lecture. Alain Connes is in the audience too.

[ultimatespider17]

dude amazing lecture !!!!!!! now i am realyy want to be a mathematician the only thing that i dont liked was the man sleepng at 2:28 man i hate when people do that !!!!!

[acesversekings]

thanks for posting bra

[honeybbqgrundle]

And now that the comment I sarcastically replied to is gone, nobody will know what the hell I'm talking about.

[correodeadolfo]

I didn't remove any comment. It probably violated YouTube rules. What was it?

[honeybbqgrundle]

It was one of those ads for a porn site written in poor English. The same message has been everywhere lately.

[honeybbqgrundle]

Thanks for putting this up btw. Good stuff.

[SiliconBong]

Gives honeybbqgrundle's lost comment a hug.

[honeybbqgrundle]

"Much better, the hot chicks are". Truly one of Master Yoda's better quotes

[mallamoozoo]

This was a good lecture - I watched all 8 parts. Thanks for posting.