Where Do Beauty And Math Intersect
What is Mathematics? It is the science that deals with the logic of shape, quantity and arrangement, also includes, structure, space and change. Arrangement means there's a pattern. People use these properties of Math in order to seek or resolve truth. Also in Mathematics, there are reasoning, probability, proving using mathematical proofs. In improving our understanding of Math, we should know the works, application of this in our daily life, even sometimes, we encounter this without realizing it. It expands the reach of human mind and has astonishing power to tell us the questions ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’ of the things.
What is beauty? What makes something beautiful? Denotation of beauty is that, it is the combination of the qualities such as shape, color and form, that pleases aesthetic senses, especially the sight. It is something that will give satisfaction or satisfies the taste of the eyes of a person. It is physically attractive. Or it is something that is proportionally perfect. Proportion or symmetry is sometimes the basis of perfection and many of us attracted in these things that are mathematically beautiful.
For example, when we are wearing socks, it is better if the sock in the right is as the same height of the sock in the left, or simply proportioned. If we are going to draw a circle, it is more attractive if it is a perfect one, that when we cut it in halves it is symmetric. Or even drawing shapes or polygons, they are more attractive if they are proportional, or been drew in straight lines (for polygons). And proportion is one of the important keys in arts. That's why it plays important role. According to Aristotle, beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. He explained that too large or too small is not quite good. One of the properties of Mathematics that is depicted in nature was symmetry. One kind of symmetry that can be seen is the bilateral symmetry, where, for example, in the human body, or in the leaves or in animals like peacock, if it is split into two there would be a mirror image of each other. Also, humans possess math properties like what had been said, the symmetry and the golden ratio. From a research study, it suggested that determining a physical attraction is when there is symmetry in a person. Another example is the golden ratio, in human face, in hands, fingers, nose, etc. Tree branches – the widespreading of the stems or branches of a tree is in Fibonacci sequence. Another example is the leaves and flowers. Leaves, if symmetrically divided into two, we can have same images. While in flowers, given best example is the sunflower, where the seeds are growing in Fibonacci sequence. A nautilus shell shows a Fibonacci spiral which is the reason why it is attractive to people.
Bees produced honeys – honeycombs is in the shape of hexagon. Honeycombs were used as the storage of honeys. It is hexagonal symmetry. This property of being symmetric/ proportional helps to make it more attractive to people. And not only it is attractive, it is also useful because, this shape is more efficient in storing the largest possible amount of honeys.
Physicist Max Tegmark's view is that, everything in universe is part of mathematical structure. Wherein, even human is part of it. All the things we see is mathematically conceptualized, and that's the beautiful sense of Mathematics. And according to Bailey and Baiwen (2017), widely sensed experiences of mathematics beauty and the application of it in the natural world still beg to be fully understood.
According to Cole (1998), Mathematics is not just about numbers. It also plays role in many different things. It helps us to understand qualitative problem through quantitative insights. And they are inseparable. It also allows us to translate the complexity of some things in our world or of our world into manageable patterns for the better sense of understanding.
Also, Mathematics allows us to see more and discover truth of many things. It helps us to broaden our mind and become critical thinker. By learning how it works, we can easily use its application to seek for answers. And curiosity of the truth of a particular thing is one of the reasons why Mathematics had been discovered and been used and applied in order to figure things out. It beautifies our mind to have new concepts and another application. It makes complex things simple rather than simple to complex. And according to Wigner, it is a wonderful gift and discovery that can be used to describe the beauty of nature and also for further understanding. Some artists and architects used Fibonacci sequence and golden ratio as their proportion standard. Mathematics can also be found and be used in arts. Mathematics has influence in the beautiful things we see in our surroundings, buildings, flowers, plants, trees, houses, also in human, etc. It is also Mathematics is beautiful. Not just beautiful but also useful and meaningful. It helps us to a more convenient way of seeking. It gives us clarity to the things people worry about. It’s a great way of taking probability and its qualitative partner.
These ideas follow the observations that in our physical world, it was full of patterns, numbers, formations etc., that it can be described qualitatively and quantitatively. We should understand first before applying. We should think critically and as a rational, we can reason things out and Math is a big part. Mathematics, not only beautiful itself but it creates beauty. Obviously seen in our nature. And as the response on the helps of Mathematics, we should use this to understand more things in a better and beautiful way. It is not just been taught in the classroom, we should take this outside.
Lastly, according to Paul Dirac, “God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.” And Bertrand Russell, “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty”.
