Mathematics and Life
Mathematics is the basis of our modern world, in fact, it is a whole new world.
Some people seem to be genetically endowed with an understanding of mathematics, but most of us need to work on it, investigating the ideas and thinking about what is being presented.
Gauss
It helps to have a love of mathematics, so that working on a mathematical problem is not a chore but a source of great satisfaction, especially if you solve the problem.
Fibonacci
Although I have now retired, my love of the subject has not declined, but it has changed focus. I have developed an interest in the historical development of some of the revolutionary concepts, and the stories of the extraordinary people involved.
Noether
What I have discovered forms the basis of the designs I have made, to be printed on Tee-shirts and hoodies. They are not tutorials, just the kernel of an idea, which may stimulate an observer to look more closely and perhaps take up pen and paper to check it out.
Euler
My designs may not look as spectacular as some of the professionally produced graphic designs. Nevertheless, I think they have some substance, being designed for a very select group of mathematics enthusiasts or people with an inquisitive turn of mind.
Newton
The men and women who have made mathematics, from Pythagoras to Einstein and Dirac are an interesting group, maybe a little quirky in some cases, but otherwise ordinary people with time in their hands.
Fourier
For example, Tycho Brahe was part of the Danish aristocracy, so collecting massive planetary motion data could be very satisfying and time-consuming, so much so that he didn't have time to analyze the data, to see what it all meant.
Tycho Brahe
Perhaps he was not interested in that aspect, so Kepler did it for him.
Kepler
Bernoulli was part of an angry dysfunctional aristocratic and mathematically gifted family, which seemed to have been divided by envy and jealousy.
Jacob Bernoulli
Newton and Hook had a disagreement about who discovered the gravitational law, an argument that persisted for years and involved the Royal Society. Newton also had an ongoing battle with Leibniz as to who first developed differential calculus.
Leibniz
But whatever their faults and foibles, their achievements were truly remarkable, some of them the cornerstones of our world.
In collection.com I present a few of their stories and discoveries and with time I will produce more, including the significant contributions made by women.
