Timothy Gowers: The Importance of Mathematics (Part 8)

He probabaly thought that aplause sounded a bit like a parabolic curve...lol

Thanks for posting the video.

i think that the argument the quality of beauty is important to understanding mathmatics is wrong, clearly there is not enough space here to argue but you have to ask, are integers beautifull? i would argue yes but they are clearly flawed. A derivative does not seem beatifull to me because infinity is not well defined and limits seem almost ad hoc arguments but it has clearly lasted and is very usefull.

Thank you for posting this lecture, I really enjoyed it.

I really admire Gower's genius combined with his humility. That in itself is beauty.

Thanks, correodeadolfo. Anymore stuff like this?

I should add, that I could only do that particular parlour trick, after reading one of my all time heros the late and great Frank Nelson Cole. Beyond 128 bits, we need hyperasyptotes, John P. Boyde's forte. I have one in mind that might crack a 4096 bit composite.

Ouch! I am an Artist! also an applied mathematician, which would have Paul Erdo's praying for my soul. Ahah! I can repost, give me a 128 bit dual prime composite number and I will have factorised it in about an hour without a computer program to do the job, just an arbirary precision calculator like Bcalc. Maths and Art have always been best buddies.

Well what would the hypothetical finance Minister care about that particular quality of mathematics when he was addressing the concern of public funding?

The main thesis of Gowers talk is that funding for mathematics (by which we mean so-called pure mathematics) should not be relagated to the same category as funding for art, which is generally not seen as a boost to an economy but does, however, also "an lift a person out of the cares and worries of contemporary living."