praisetompane / mathematics

an attempt at unpacking in layman's terms what mathematics is.

What is Mathematics?

objective: an attempt at unpacking in layman's terms what mathematics is.

def¹: mathematics is an art like music and painting (Lockhart, 2009: 3).

def²: mathematics is about pure reason to get at the truth about something (Lockhart, 2009: 4).

plain english:

• def: mathematics is a formal language. this means it has precise definitions for its words(+,-,*, π,e, etc) and grammar.
• the symbols are merely shorthands. symbols such as ∧, Σ, ∀, +, ×.
  • ∧ means: AND
  • Σ means: sum
  • ∀ means: for all
  • + means: add[which you know from Grade 1 Mathematics]
  • - means: subtract[which you know from Grade 1 Mathematics]

a formal classification scheme is maintained here:

• https://zbmath.org/classification/
• https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/loci/joma/subject-taxonomy

History:

• MoMath, Wolfram Research: https://history-of-mathematics.org/
• NJ Wildberger. The history of mathematics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW8Cy6WrO94&list=PL55C7C83781CF4316

State of the art:

Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematics/

Community:

• https://aims.ac.za/
• https://mathematicallogic.com
• The South African Mathematical Society: http://www.sams.ac.za
• Institute of Mathematics & its Applications: https://ima.org.uk
• Mathematical Association of America: https://www.maa.org
• American Mathematical Society: https://www.ams.org/mr-database
• Clay Mathematics Institute: https://www.claymath.org/
• https://mathoverflow.net/
• https://math.stackexchange.com/
• The African Mathematical Society https://aims.ac.za# mathematics

Mathematicians:

• https://terrytao.wordpress.com/
• https://njwildberger.com
• https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/

git conventions:

• NB: the master is locked and all changes must come through a Pull Request.
• commit messages:
  • provide concise commit messages that describe what you have done.

    # example:
    git commit -m "feat(core): algorithm" -m"implement my new shiny faster algorithm"

  • screen shot of Githb view
  • references:
    • https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/
    • https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-write-better-git-commit-messages/

References:

• Mathematics Subject Classification. 2020. https://zbmath.org/classification/
• Mathematical Association of America. https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/loci/joma/subject-taxonomy
• Lockhart, P. 2009. A Mathematician's Lament.

Legend:

Q: Question for later research

MYINC: My Insight/Conjecture [Could Be Unoriginal/False and Likely Is]

Disclaimer: This is an ongoing and incomplete project to unpack these concepts and serve as my distributed memory.