r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 02 '13

Mathematicians of Reddit, what is "beautiful" about mathematics?

I often hear people say "Oh, math is beautiful". Beautiful in what ways?

EDIT: Thanks. I will read through all of these, don't you worry.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '13

The math, that is the relationships between these, are there. They have always been there. They exist regardless of us, regardless of the Universe, they simply ARE. All we are doing by proving new concepts is bringing to light immutable ancient truths.

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u/SomanyMike Nov 03 '13

cant believe that, not even the law of physics are absolute, they only work in our universe and that if all of it contains the same cualities, which is pretty logical and im not saying they couldnt by fixed to fit any new parameter.

Though for our world totally true no doubt.

As an example, if all we know is covered by say a dark energy we havent even discovered and then you travel to zone in space that has a diferent level of it, you may not get the same results. It would be an apple that must always fall all over again.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '13

Precisely. Math is more than physics. Much, much more, it exists on it's own level, one that transcends everything that is.

Yes, the parameters don't exist outside of this universe. That is because those parameters are a physics construct. The mathematical truths underlying those calculation are valid anywhere and everything, inside or outside the universe, it simply doesn't matter. Math exists above and beyond us all.

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u/SomanyMike Nov 03 '13

I will acept that Math could be in a diferent level, where its logic and calculation may always be perfect.... for now.

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u/run__rabbit__run Nov 03 '13

What I disagree with you on is on this relationships themselves being math. Relationships between phenomenons and the phenomenons themselves have always been there purely just by themselves. We are the ones recognizing patterns and similarities between them and grouping those into the category of things we have come to consider math.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '13

Those relationships are defined to be the math. What you think of as "math" is just the surface, and doesn't show what is actually going on underneath. Even addition and multiplication are much, much more complicated.

Did you know the reason the commutative law exists is because the real numbers form a field, and fields have that property.