Germany Declares 2008 Year of Mathematics: You Know More Math Than You Think
The year 2008 has been declared the year of Mathematics in Germany, with the motto "Everything that counts".
It followed, from 2000 to 2007: the year of Physics, year of Life Sciences, Geo Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Einstein year, Informatics year, and the Humanities year.
As a mathematician, I find the planned activities of the year of Mathematics very laudable. It seems that their main theme is "you know more Math than you think". They avoided abstract Math and the remoteness of Mathematics in ivory towers, and instead stresses how near Mathematics is in our everyday life. We use and know Mathematics, sometimes unconsciously, more than we realize.
When we hear mp3, we do not realize that Math is involved in the compression algorithm. We use cell phones all the time, but we do not think of the Mathematical problems of the allocation of frequencies. Each time we deliberate in making our decisions, we employ probabilities and optimization. The world of finance is now unthinkable without Math. Parking cars involve some geometry of curves. In the medical world, Math plays a great role in the calculations used in the computer tomography imaging. Game theory and Mathematics of Voting are some of the newer branches of Mathematics with many applications in everyday life.
And so it goes on. See more of it here, What moves Mathematics, and Mathematics in life.
Popularizing Mathematics is sometimes done by showing the fun side of Math, puzzles, tricks, curiosities, and entertainment. I am glad that in the year of Mathematics program, the fun side is there, but emphasizing applications is more important than just frivolities.
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