Mikael Lonai, a French writer, recorded a story in his book Everything Matters: A Mathematical Journey from Prehistoric Times to Artificial Intelligence, Crossing the Millennium: It is said that the Egyptian Pharaoh wanted Thales to complete the pyramid height measurement. Although all the ancient Egyptian scholars who accepted the challenge failed before, he resolutely accepted the challenge without fear, and the final result can be said to be the greatest mathematical achievement in his life.
How exactly is it measured? He stuck a stick in the ground vertically. When the length of the stick and the shadow is the same in one day, he measured the length of the shadow of the pyramid, which is the height of the pyramid. I see. Although such a beautiful story has not been fully demonstrated by historians, no one can stop Thales from using this geometric method to extend many mathematical theorems, such as the mathematical theorem mentioned at the beginning; The vertex angles of any two intersecting lines are the same; Any diameter of a circle divides the circle into two parts with equal area, and so on.
Ever since I read this story in Everything Counts by mikael Loenay, I suddenly became interested in mathematics, which has always been a poor achievement of mine.
As a doctor of probability, mikael Lonai is a member of the French "Salon of Culture and Mathematics Games". He has been committed to promoting a large number of mathematical activities to the public. It is worth mentioning that the number of mathematical network programs he planned is nearly 20 million. If the program is boring, will the viewing volume be so high? Not to mention mathematics, many people think that mathematics is the most difficult subject.
Then, I want to share with you what influence this book "Everything counts" with all kinds of interesting mathematical discoveries and cases has brought to me.
First, the mysterious origin of mathematics
Let's take a look at the following two pictures first.
These shapes in the picture above are pottery patterns burned by humans as early as 20 thousand years ago. When mikael Lonai saw it, his eyes lit up. It turned out that people at that time had begun to "engage in mathematics" in their minds and unconsciously applied mathematical knowledge such as symmetry, rotation and translation to their lives.
With the deepening of interpersonal communication, there are more and more things that need to be counted, such as raising a few sheep and measuring the chips of exchanging goods. It was only then that "writing" had not been realized, and it was only measured by knotting and drawing a cross. At the beginning of 3000 BC, man finally liberated numbers from the measured objects. No longer use symbols to indicate how many sheep there are, but use the number "how many"
Whether it is pottery patterns or various chips, in fact, human beings have quietly begun to rehearse for the birth of numbers.
Second,? It turns out that mathematics, a beautiful art, is inextricably linked with our lives.
I wonder if you have noticed the geometry of football? Most football shapes consist of 20 regular hexagons and 12 regular pentagons. No one can imagine that the shape of football is called "amputated" icosahedron by geometricians. You can also try the name yourself to deepen your understanding: You knead a pile of clay into an icosahedron. In order to make these 20 vertices as round as possible, you must choose … to cut off these corners. How's it going? Feel the humor of mathematicians.
Mathematics can be seen everywhere in our lives, as mikael Lonai said in Everything is Count: "As long as you change your view of the world, mathematics will appear in front of your eyes. Finding mathematics is a fascinating and never-ending process. "
Third, what will mathematics look like in the future?
2016 On March 10, Li Shishi, the world's best Go player, started a man-machine war with the computer "Alpha Dog" in Seoul, South Korea. The eyes of the whole world are focused on this unprecedented game. You know, before 20 16, there was no precedent for computers to "beat" humans. Moreover, Go is also considered as the most difficult game to be understood by computers, and it is also called the last bastion of "confrontation" between computers and human beings.
The final result was unexpected: the computer won.
Many people wonder, can computers play freely and create their own ideas? In fact, this is a new algorithm: learning algorithm. This is due to the programmer who teaches the computer to play Go. Before the dust landed, Alpha Dog spent thousands of hours playing chess with himself and mastered all the tricks to win. Let's imagine, in the future, will "Alpha Dog" create its own mathematical thinking?
For the future of mathematics, Micael Lonai has this idea: "If one day we become omniscient and omnipotent, then as a result, we will definitely fall into the abyss of disappointment from happiness, because we can no longer get any pleasure from discovering new things." So, maybe now we can't guess what the future mathematics will look like, but we can't deny that the future mathematics will definitely create valuable applications.
When we recall the examples in life, you will find that mathematics is around us: the magician who explains the skills of playing cards is actually using the nature of mathematical calculation to answer your questions; The modeling of sculpture is inspired by Plato's three-dimensional; The origami principle that children like to play is also the knowledge of geometry. It turns out that we are all creating mathematics in our own way.
As mikael Lonai said, "It's never too late to love mathematics." After reading "Everything counts" by Micael Lonay, the beauty of mathematics can be seen everywhere. Mathematics is no longer just an examination subject, but a practical and interesting subject. If you want to know more interesting stories about the art of mathematics, you might as well read the book "Everything has a number".
I'm Zijuan. I hope my sharing can bring you happiness. Welcome to pay attention and forward.