You were the first mathematician of color to be president of the American Mathematical Association. What you think mathematics for is going tost ly determine how other people relate to it, he says. "We should all be able to experience good music or fine art, or the thrill of a football game"
Every day, we humans do math. Whether we are obsessed with a logic puzzle on our smartphones or even just calculating a morning alarm that gives you 8 more minutes in bed, our daily lives are full of numbers, quantities, shapes and patterns. And for Francis Su—a writer and Professor of Mathematics and the Former President of the Mathematical Association of America—math is actually one of the things that makes us human. In today’s episode he talks about how mathematics can serve as a tool for social justice, how math can enhance our sense of aesthetics and beauty, why math is one of the last refuges of truth in a time where misinformation is rampant, and how we can all learn to cultivate, and even come to love, the little daily mathematics of our lives.