Is Math Just a Mental Construct? - ATLANTIS RISING THE RESEARCH REPORT (original) (raw)

Is math an artificial construct created my number-crazed nerds, or is it essential to reality?

For one math professor at Australian Catholic University, the answer is clear. Sam Baron has written a new paper for the University of Chicago Journal arguing that “humans didn’t invent mathematics, it’s what the world is made of” (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/716181). In an online article for the Conversation he calls it, “Pythagoras’ revenge” and provides plenty of evidence.

One example is ‘the honeycomb conjecture.” The reason bees in hives produce a hexagonal honeycomb, is because the six-sided form is the most efficient shape for tiling the plane. If you want to fully cover a surface using tiles of a uniform shape and size, while keeping the total length of the perimeter to a minimum that is the way to go. Charles Darwin, indeed, reasoned that bees have evolved to use this shape because it produces the largest cells to store honey for the smallest input of energy to produce wax. The honeycomb conjecture was first proposed in ancient times, says Baron, but was formally proved in 1999 by mathematician Thomas Hales.

He cites many other examples including Cicadas, prime numbers, soap films, and gear design. You can read his article at: https://theconversation.com/pythagoras-revenge-humans-didnt-invent-mathematics-its-what-the-world-is-made-of-172034.

Another case we might add: children who haven’t yet learned the basic rules of arithmetic, like place value and the addition table, nevertheless can easily solve illustrated problems involving approximate addition and subtraction of symbolic numbers between five and 98. According to a study from the University of Nottingham and Harvard, the children performed well above chance, and, in the process, astonished teachers accustomed to the great struggles often experienced by children in this area (https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05850). Dr. Camilla Gilmore who led the work says we may now be able learn new strategies for teaching primary mathematics and “making it fun.”