ZERO — The Foundation of Modern Technology
Duration: 4 hours
Target Audience: Engineers, product designers, R&D managers, corporate heads
Brief:
This is the first part of a few lectures on “Mathematics in Nature.” The focus of this part is on the concept of ‘number.’ Next parts will focus on chance, change, patterns, algorithms, optimization, uncertainty, unchangeability and unknowability.
In SRI RAM ‘SIR’s words entire Nature is one solidified surprise. The visible Nature is Her manifestation. The foundation of creation is based on the bedrock of mathematics. Physical laws are built on mathematical truths. “God ever geometrizes,” said Plato. “God ever arithmetizes,” echoed the 19 th century Prussian Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. In our time the British physicist Sir James Jeans declared, “The great architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.”
In SRI RAM ‘SIR’s words entire Nature is one solidified surprise. The visible Nature is Her manifestation. The foundation of creation is based on the bedrock of mathematics. Physical laws are built on mathematical truths. “God ever geometrizes,” said Plato. “God ever arithmetizes,” echoed the 19 th century Prussian Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. In our time the British physicist Sir James Jeans declared, “The great architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.”
|
Nature’s labors, designs, oeuvres, workings and creations are based on scientific laws. Scientific laws are written in the language of mathematics. Number is the language of science. Without numbers, science cannot move an inch forward. Think of some of the Nature’s Constants such as light velocity (3x10 power 6 km per second), gravitational constant (6.67384×10 −11 m 3 kg −1 s −2 ), Avogadro’s number (6.02214129×10 23 mol −1 ), or Plank’s constant (6.62606957×10 −34 J s) and so on. Without numbers, science cannot achieve the precision with which it designs, creates, predicts, and controls.
|
|
Our physical bodies are designed based on numbers (Ex: Organs that come in pairs such as eyes, nostrils, ears, hands, legs, kidneys, …; Legs are usually even numbers and while the toes are odd numbers), on ratios of numbers (Ex: Golden ratio; various proportions in the body), transformations of numbers (Ex: Logarithms embedded in sensory perceptions), and on changes of numbers over time (Ex: blood-clotting, or, a sigmoid curve that depicts the growth of a child into an adult).
|
|
Our lives are driven by numbers (wake-up time, distance to office, pay-checks, weekends, holidays, bank accounts, savings or debts, birth dates, anniversaries, musical scores, sports bets, whether reports, stock markets, real estates, calories we eat, and calories we burn, … and so on). Numbers rule our lives and they are the first words we learn. There is no limit to their size.
Life around us is also determined by numbers. Sun rise and set, Moon cycles, agriculture cycles, prey-predator cycles, shapes and sizes of plants, animals, insects, fishes, longevities … and so on. There is mathematics in a falling rain drop, a meandering river, formation of a snowflake, geometry of a lightning, rhythm and dance of an ocean wave, the electro-magnetic forces that create beautiful aurora borealis, halos around the Sun and the Moon, apparitions in a mirage, and the curves of a rainbow. |
|
Numbers have fascinated people for centuries. They are familiar to everyone, forming a central pillar of our understanding of the world and the universe around us. Yet, the number system was not presented to us “gift-wrapped” but, rather, was developed over millennia. The evolution of number is profoundly a human story that progressed by trying and erring, by groping and stumbling. Today, despite all the progress, it remains true that a child might ask a question about numbers that no one can answer. Many unsolved problems still remain, showing many pathways to numerous future joys.
Numbers come singly, or in pairs and sets, in patterns and shapes, randomly and predictably. They cause bewildering conditions, a parallax, a nutation, aberrations and oscillations. They are variously rational, irrational, natural, perfect, amicable, imaginary and complex. Each number is feminine or masculine, perfect or imperfect, beautiful or ugly, lucky or unlucky, divine or devilish. They have been the subject of poetry, trickery, murder and at least one deathbed confession. |
The Lecture Outline:
In this lecture on the numbers, these topics will be covered: (1) The concept of Zero , (2) Numbers 1 to 9, (3) Prime numbers, (4) Other numbers (11, 13, 17, et al.,), (5) Infinity, (6) Numbers Л, e, i, Ф, and (7) Nature’s constants.
We will also see some historical snapshots of math hall-of-famers such as Euclid, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Blaise Pascal, Rene Descartes, Daniel Bernoulli, Isaac Newton, Leibnitz, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Leonard Euler, Georg Cantor, Bramhagupta, Bhaskaracharya, Aryabhatta, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Andrew Wiles, Jon von Neumann, Neils Henrik Abel, David Hilbert, Bertrand Russell, Paul Erdos.
We will also see some historical snapshots of math hall-of-famers such as Euclid, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Blaise Pascal, Rene Descartes, Daniel Bernoulli, Isaac Newton, Leibnitz, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Leonard Euler, Georg Cantor, Bramhagupta, Bhaskaracharya, Aryabhatta, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Andrew Wiles, Jon von Neumann, Neils Henrik Abel, David Hilbert, Bertrand Russell, Paul Erdos.
