Math Makes Our World Work
Isaw a brief video on New Scientist and it made me think of the movieThe Matrix. Inside the Matrix,everything Neo saw was the product of a vast program. But outside the Matrix, the free people watchednumbers trickle down their computer screens and knew the Matrix was all justmath and lines of code.
Thevideo is a quick overview of some of the formulas that enable our world tofunction. Like citizens of the Matrix,we can't see these invisible math calculations, and yet they constantly takeplace all around us.
Ifyou have a cellular telephone, you can't see the signal between the cell towerand the phone, yet you hear your friend's voice. You can't see the signal your satellite TVdish receives, yet you watch your favorite team play. And inside your house, the small router nextto your computer sends out its unseen WiFi signal to your laptop, ereader ortablet.
Mathenables all these invisible transactions.
Thevideo discusses waves because so many things we do involve the sending andreceiving of signals in wave form, like radio. To enable this, we needed the contributions of mathematicians Fourier, Bernoulliand d'Alembert, plus Maxwell's work on electricity and magnetism. They in turn used principles of physics fromNewton. Each generation builds on thehard work of those who came before.
Sonext time you use your cell phone, realize that math is useful for all sorts ofcool things. And encourage those aroundyou to learn more about math.
(The pic is from the MatrixOnline game from back in about 2005. Found here at IGN. Also Wolfram Alpha has the actual equations, but not much explanation.)
Thevideo is a quick overview of some of the formulas that enable our world tofunction. Like citizens of the Matrix,we can't see these invisible math calculations, and yet they constantly takeplace all around us.
Ifyou have a cellular telephone, you can't see the signal between the cell towerand the phone, yet you hear your friend's voice. You can't see the signal your satellite TVdish receives, yet you watch your favorite team play. And inside your house, the small router nextto your computer sends out its unseen WiFi signal to your laptop, ereader ortablet.
Mathenables all these invisible transactions.
Thevideo discusses waves because so many things we do involve the sending andreceiving of signals in wave form, like radio. To enable this, we needed the contributions of mathematicians Fourier, Bernoulliand d'Alembert, plus Maxwell's work on electricity and magnetism. They in turn used principles of physics fromNewton. Each generation builds on thehard work of those who came before.
Sonext time you use your cell phone, realize that math is useful for all sorts ofcool things. And encourage those aroundyou to learn more about math.
(The pic is from the MatrixOnline game from back in about 2005. Found here at IGN. Also Wolfram Alpha has the actual equations, but not much explanation.)
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