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If I point to a picture and say beauty, many people will nod, but if I point to a bunch of numerical equations and say beauty, it is estimated that most people will shake their heads.

When it comes to mathematics, many of us just feel bored or complicated. In fact, there is aesthetics in mathematics.

Hua, a famous mathematician in China, said: "As far as mathematics itself is concerned, it is magnificent, colorful and fascinating ... People who think mathematics is boring only see the rigor of mathematics, but they don't realize the inner beauty of mathematics."

The beauty of mathematics is contained in all aspects of life, especially art.

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There is such a math professor who told us all the beauty of mathematics that she found in art.

In her book Collection of Museum Art Treasures: Convergence, Professor jinliang takes us into four famous museums in the world to appreciate the beauty of mathematics in painting and sculpture.

In fact, from the word "convergence" in the title of this book, we can get a glimpse of mathematics. The word convergence comes from calculus in mathematics, which means to converge to a point and approach a certain value. Another term in the corresponding mathematics is called "divergence"

Museum art collection: Convergence has selected four comprehensive museums in the world and some museums with obvious historical characteristics, including but not limited to the famous Louvre Museum, British Museum, Egyptian Museum and Vatican Museum, especially works with historical and related museum memories.

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Sometimes, we think that the beauty of art is precisely because of the mathematical elements it covers.

Everyone is familiar with it, and many junior high school textbooks must have this-the origin of beauty: the golden ratio.

The golden section refers to dividing the whole into two parts, and the ratio of the larger part to the whole is equal to the ratio of the smaller part to the larger part, and the ratio is about 0.6 18, which is recognized as the most aesthetic ratio.

In ancient Greece, one day, the mathematician Pythagoras was walking in the street. Before he passed the blacksmith's shop, he heard the blacksmith strike the iron, so he stopped to listen. He found that the blacksmith had a regular rhythm in striking iron, and the proportion of this sound was expressed mathematically by Pythagoras.

Later, eudoxus, an ancient Greek mathematician, made a systematic study of this ratio, and his research results were written into Euclid's The Elements of Geometry, which has been widely circulated so far.

The painters also found that the most beautiful paintings were designed according to the ratio of 0.6 18: 1. Therefore, the mathematical aesthetics of the golden section has been applied in many famous works of art.

The golden section is used in Leonardo da Vinci's works Vitruvian Man, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Venus, the famous statue of broken arm in ancient Greece, and Apollo, the sun god, both intentionally extended their legs, so that the ratio of their height to their height was 0.6 18.

Architects also have a special preference for the number 0.6 18. No matter the pyramids in ancient Egypt, Notre Dame de Paris, the Eiffel Tower and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, there are footprints of the golden section.

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The beauty of mathematics is also reflected in geometric figures.

Pythagoras said: "The most beautiful three-dimensional figure is spherical, and the most beautiful plane figure is round." Because these two figures are symmetrical in any direction.

In fact, things designed according to symmetry can be seen everywhere around us: as small as an eraser and a racket, as large as an airplane and a building.

The famous Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the towering Shanghai Oriental TV Tower, the vivid fan-shaped and plum-blossom petal-shaped combination graphics, the copper coin-shaped round China edge and the beautiful "snowflake" pattern all show the symmetrical beauty and harmonious beauty of geometric graphics.

Van Gogh's Starry Sky, the impressionist painting style makes this painting look beautiful and psychedelic. However, under the romance, the quiet night sky seems to be a kind of violent flowing color, which is gradually proved by people, and its abstract "turbulence" is very in line with the famous "Andre Andrey Kolmogorov microscale".

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Even seemingly boring mathematical equations have their artistic beauty.

Such as the heart-shaped equation.

The beauty of mathematical model is also reflected in william blake's painting Jacob's Dream (also called Jacob's Ladder). ?

This painting tells the story that when Brett's younger brother Robert died, the grief-stricken Blake saw his younger brother's soul rising from the roof and "clapped his hands happily". He was inspired to draw the story of Jacob dreaming of climbing a ladder in the Old Testament.

Unlike many other paintings in which the ladder is straight up and down, Brett's ladder hovers meaningfully, forming a three-dimensional conical spiral. The whole picture is very mathematical.

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Mathematics is a science that studies concepts such as quantity, structure, change, space and information.

Its characteristics are accuracy, extensiveness and abstraction.

Art includes mathematics, just as mathematics and art are two sets respectively, but the relationship between them is not union but intersection.

"The structure of art is mathematical, and the expression of mathematics is artistic."

While we are still thinking about the boundary between art and science, pioneers may have predicted that the exchange of knowledge is the key to make art last forever.

After reading this book, perhaps you can try to re-examine those artworks with new eyes: the proportion of golden human body implied in Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, the group image of natural "normal distribution" in Rembrandt's works, and the functional mapping of nature embodied in Monet's Water Lily. ......

As Professor jinliang said, "I share some ideas about museum treasures from the perspective of mathematics, so readers who are afraid of mathematics need not be afraid. I will not bombard readers with mathematical formulas, but appreciate art from another angle with mathematical ideas and viewpoints. Visiting museums may have different effects. "