The Art of Mathematics

by Jerry P. King

"Creative mathematicians seldom write for outsiders, but when they do, they usually do it well. Jerry King is no exception. His informal, nontechnical book, as its title implies, is organized around what Bertrand Russell called the 'supreme beauty' of mathematics--a beauty 'capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.'"
NATURE
In this clear, concise, and superbly written volume, mathematics professor and poet Jerry P. King reveals the beauty that is at the heart of mathematics--and he makes that beauty accessible to all readers. Darting wittily from Euclid to Yeats, from Poincare to Rembrandt, from axioms to symphonies, THE ART OF MATHEMATICS explores the difference between real, rational, and complex numbers; analyzes the intellectual underpinnings of pure and applied mathematics; and reveals the fundamental connection between aesthetics and mathematics. King also sheds light on how mathematicians pursue their research and how our educational system perpetuates the damaging divisions between the "two cultures."

Genres: Mathematics, Science, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Art

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Dav · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started really well, but lost my interest around 2/3rds of the way in when it started trying to explain aesthetics.

[ceyda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yazar kitabı matematikçi olmayan ve matematiği sevmeyenler için onlara matematiğin estetik ve zarif yönünü göstermek için yazmış. Bir matematikçi olarak okudum ve sevdim. Zaten bildiğim şeyleri daha farklı açılardan görmüş oldum. Her bir birey okuduğunda etkilenebilir. Matematiğe karşı ön yargılarınızı kırarız belki okursanız. :)) <>

[Bill Ardis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars
A little bit dated (written in '92), but still applicable to today. King's big idea is that most people don't appreciate mathematics because the can't appreciate the mathematics aesthetically. And the reason for that is because mathematicians have done a poor job of conveying mathematics over the years. His solution is a call for a change in how we teach courses like calculus. I tend to agree with him, although the types of courses he wants mathematicians to teach seem like pie (or pi) in the sky ideals that may not be realistic. Over all it is an interesting idea, and he does a nice job of supporting idea.

[Epichan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matamatik hakkında bir çok bilgiler içeren ve matetiğin neden öğrenilmesi gerektiği konusunda açıklamarda bulunan güzel bir kitap.

Daha fazlası için;
http://goo.gl/L6h3rf

[Chris Riddick · Rating 5 out of 5]

King writes about the beauty of mathematics in a way I have rarely seen. As a math major, I know I appreciated the art of mathematics as he describes it, but I could not understand why most of my professors taught it as a tool and not art. This is a must-read for anyone who ever wondered what some of us see in the study of math and why we just smile when someone complains that "they just don't get it." Math has been taught the wrong way for decades. Only the lucky few encounter a professor who can convey the art of math the way King does. I had one professor who helped me see the beauty in math. It has stayed with me my whole life. If you are an artist, you might try reading this book as there are strong parallels between math and art.

[Sevda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Benim ilk öğretmenlerim matematiği niteliksiz bir sanatmış gibi öğretiyorlardı. Konuya ilişkin bir duygu aşılamadılar. Ne yazıktır ki bu duygu kendilerinde de yoktu." Kitabin matematiğin sadece işlem yapmak olmadığını, aslında bir çeşit düşünme sanatı olduğunu ve matematik eğitiminin bu çerçevede nasıl şekillenmesi gerektiğini anlattığı bölümleri özellikle ilgi çekiciydi. Bu kitabı okuduktan sonra kalkülüsün temel teoremine başka bir gözle bakıyor insan.

[Allen Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes, what I believe, to be a profoundly important point on an issue of great societal importance, but the delivery felt lukewarm.

Not nearly enough people, including even most science and engineering students*, seem to really understand what Mathematics truly is. I believe this is one of the greatest failings of our current education system.

*My anecdotal account, take with a grain of salt

[tamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book and it changed my life. I like maths but never thought about studying it at school, especially not after +45. But this book changed it. I will do my best to enrol a university next year only to study maths nothing else. No job desire no gaining money etc. pure mathematics.
But I have to admit after 2/3rd of the book it kind of lost me. Too much details in irrelevant subjects according to me. But still it was worth reading. Thx Jerry P. King

[Eylül Seren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uzun zaman sonra yeniden ele alma fırsatı yakaladığım bu eser, birçok disiplinde yer alan etmenlerin matematikle ne denli benzeştiğini görmek adına ufuk açıcı oldu. Ayrıca matematiği anlamak konusunda fazlasıyla yetkin bir kalem tarafından yazılması da okumayı daha zevkli kılıyor. Tavsiyedir.

[Hüseyin Çalışkan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matematiğin insanlık ve insan hayatındaki yerini çok güzel anlatan bir kitap. Bir matematikçi gözünden olmasına rağmen bizler için çok anlaşılır bir lisanla yazılmış.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, so don't laugh... Jerry King has written a serious book about the aesthetics of math, and it is one of the best books I've read about math ever.

The thesis of the book is that research mathematicians are artists in that they create something of beauty and elegance in their work as they create new mathematics from logic. King explores this idea from several angles building on the work of pure mathematicians (as opposed to applied mathematicians that work in fields such as physics or engineering that see math as a tool rather than an art) and philosophers of aesthetics. As a mathematician himself, King then gives a blistering critique of current mathematics departments at research universities arguing that the professors of mathematics form a kind of aristocracy that are insulated from change and thus they appreciate the art of their work, but simultaneously they feel no obligation to share that with the rest of the world and indeed believe that the rest of the world wouldn't understand it if they did. He then revises C.P. Snow's concept of the two cultures, the humanities and the scientists, in academia to suggest that the divide could more easily be between those that know and use highers level math (i.e. Calculus) and those that don't. From this he suggests, that the mathematics community has an obligation to step outside of their cloistered walls and share beauty and elegance of creating mathematics. This book was written in 1992, and I haven't been in a university classroom in over ten years. However, what I have seen in the folks that I know and work with, the state of college level math has not changed.

But what is most compelling to me as preschool to middle school educator are the implications of this work to my own work. I am not someone situated to or suited to the artistic endeavor of creating new mathematics, however, I am convinced of King's argument. In fact, I have seen the beauty of mathematics in the recreation of mathematics by students. It is this work which I think begins with a child's first conception of space and number which is the foundation of beauty of mathematics. King suggests that any idea which has minimal completeness and maximum applicability is a thing of beauty. As elementary and middle school math teachers we have an obligation to help students recreate math and to help them see the beauty in their creations by pushing them to articulate their understanding with minimal completeness (no unnecessary words) and maximum applicability not to just the "real world" but to world that is math.

[Mark Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me in response to my question, "What is mathematics, and how can I learn it?" I asked this question when it was revealed to me that I didn't really understand mathematics that well, despite being educated in it for 4 years in secondary school, and 2 years in college (note: mathematics is not the same as arithmetic). This book does not teach mathematics. Instead it talks *about* mathematics. Still, it's an important book for that reason, because before one can really learn mathematics, it's necessary to understand what it's really about. Unfortunately schools typically don't get this across to students, because they treat it in a utilitarian fashion. What King tries to drive home is that mathematics to a mathematician is something to be enjoyed for its own sake, and that it's really an art form, with aesthetics and precision. The thing that distinguishes it from other art forms is that it demands logical thinking from its practitioners.

King also goes into the deplorable state of math education in our schools, and undergraduate education in our universities for the last 50 years, saying that it results in students aching to get *out* of their math requirements as quickly as they can, hoping never to go near it again, proudly proclaiming in the end, "I don't know a thing about math, and I don't know why they bothered teaching it to me." He talks mainly about how it got this way.

The theme of the book is King struggling to find a way to rejuvenate an accurate portrayal of mathematics in the minds of students, and he casts a wide net. He wrote the book to appeal to students in the arts and humanities. What he hopes is that people who got a debauched education in mathematics will take a second look at it, and learn it for what it really is. Ultimately what he'd like to see is math education reformed to truly reflect what math is.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I should emphasize that possibly I didn’t enjoy this book because it was not aimed at me. The author frequently writes about the large gap between people who know math (mathematicians, engineers, scientists) and people who don’t know or like math (humanists, English professors politicians). In the intro he talks about this gap and says he wrote this book for non-math people. This is where I should have known that I wouldn’t like this book having completed calculus 3 and differential equations and very much being a math lover.

Despite that fact I decided to read the book because from the brief intro it's easily seen that King is a good writer and expresses his viewpoints elegantly. Not to mention I do see a great beauty in mathematics and I thought this book would be discussing the various beauties of the subject I love

However to my disappointment, the bulk of this book is about philosophy, the philosophy of "what is art" or "What is beauty" and using these viewpoints to persuade the reader in an extremely thorough and well cited manner of why pure mathematics is a kind of art. All of this is in a kind of organized assault on the current teaching strategy of math in colleges and why its failing us.

The brief math filled sections were very enjoyable, just much too rare.

[Danjo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dick Webeck's favorite book. Argues that math is art, that teaching math in schools ought to emphasize the aesthetic nature of math, etc. History of math and mathematicians outlined well! Mathematicians are precise & thus represent the highest form of art, I think Mr. King would agree. He does split people between M types (mathematicals) and N types (non-M types), much like CP Snow's humanist vs scientist (he acknowledges CPS). About one-third of the book represents adiatribe against 1992-current teaching methods; he also critiques in depth two math tracts on teaching that I didn't know and won't look up; but this professorial harangue makes the book difficult to want to follow. On the other hand, he takes us through number theory, and reviews the works of some famous mathematicians, so that's cool.

[Bob Finch · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this little book, I was not so taken, thinking King's approach was somewhere between appealing to a rank novice and a moderately accomplished mathematician. In the years since, I find myself repeatedly remembering the stories and proofs, reaching again and again for my now-doggeared copy.

[Irem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mathematics isn't only for mathematicians; it is also for art enthusiast, music lovers and other people. I especially like Pure Mathematics part. Deep corners of Maths is quite enjoyable. However, the Practical Mathematics part makes me bored at some point. This is a math book for everyone. Enjoy it!

[Raphael Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily one of the best examples of science writing I have ever encountered. Jerry King comes close to writing poetry: the introduction alone is astonishing. Wow. Wow.

[sezolin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kitabı almıştım ama kitaplığımda hep duruyordu. Aldım kitabı bari okkuyumda bir faydası olsun dedim kitaba derken sayfalar akarken ben de sanki sıvı boyutuna geçmiş sayfalardan akıyordum.

[Somdutta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells us that learning mathematics should involve enjoying its beauty and aesthetics. Only if we understand its beauty, we will be able to appreciate mathematics.