Maths is fundamentally trying to make life easier for us, although many people experience it as making life harder for them. category theory does that for lots of different branches of maths, which are then able to be used in lots of parts of the world. Is there something in your brain that makes a decision-arrachs? For example, for me, if a picture is put in a wall in the wrong place- Not upper down or just in the wrong places in relation to another one. It makes me feel queasy. Oh, yeah. That's why eretrific control is one of them. Yes, it's about spotting patterns in structures.
Kirsty Wark celebrates the artistry of numbers with three mathematicians Eugenia Cheng, Sarah Hart and Emily Howard.
Eugenia Cheng asks Is Maths Real? in her new book, which offers a new way to look at the subject by focusing on the questions, rather than the answers. She explores how asking the simplest of questions – ‘why does 1 + 1 = 2?’ – can get to the very heart of the search for mathematical truth.
Sarah Hart wants to break down the perceived barriers between mathematics and the creative arts. In Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature she reveals the geometry lurking in Moby-Dick, George Eliot’s obsession with statistics, and Jurassic Park’s fractal patterns.
Emily Howard has a dual passion for maths and music. In her compositions she plays with mathematical shapes and processes. Her new record Torus, released on NMC Recordings in April, brings together works including sphere and Compass.
Producer: Katy Hickman