I was never good at math. It’s a fact in my life and I can’t remember a single time I got the highest score in a math quiz or exam in class. It doesn’t mean I was bad at math though, in fact unlike other lessons I used to study math regularly, and it helped me to have an insight of what math was about; Even if you don’t commit your life to something, after doing it for 12 years you’ll eventually get idea of what’s it about. But of course one doesn’t have to do something only because schools says so, in simple words, even though I wasn’t that good at math solving math problems looked like a fun activity in my eyes and any class related to math was always extremely exciting to me either if it was Geometry, Algebra or Trigonometry I was always so amazed by listening to math lessons and seeing how small separated pieces sicked together and formed a bigger piece, full of harmony and amazing relationships.
But how possibly sitting still and staring and ambiguous, non-standard and self-made symbols for hours can be fun? Well the answer is simple, the same thing that saved math to exist all this time. Fun part of math isn’t dealing with numbers or even concepts, it’s about solving little puzzles. Dealing with integrals isn’t fun but dealing with puzzles is. If you don’t believe me, count the number of riddle, puzzle and small quiz books already published for children. A kid’s behavior, is the purest and the most natural form of action a human can make. And all children love riddles; if you’re not sure, try it and ask this from the first children around:
If you drop me, I’m sure to crack. Give me a smile, and I’ll smile back. What am I?
And they probably ask for the second one :)
Well this explains (kinda) why greatest minds in math started working with concepts and formulas around math and actually why they started learning them in the first place. Doesn’t matter we’re talking about Euclid or Gauss, apart from anything, they are humans and like rest of us they enjoyed problem-solving. Finding solutions for difficulties is what humans do, and this spirit has kept us alive all this time and pushed us to the top of food chain. Basically seeing results of our struggle and reaching to solutions produces dopamine and that alone is enough to keep anyone in a single place and work on math problems. That’s why Lewis Richardson despite working as a full time lawyer never stooped following his passion and studied math in his spare time as a hobby. Or Riemann never knew just by following his heart and reading his favorite books he will become a great name in analysis and number theory.
Math is here because some people decided to see it not as a tool, but as a way to have fun, solve puzzles and more amazingly invent tools to solve even more riddles.
By the way the answer to the riddle is rorriM.
Sorry for not mentioning your favorite mathematician :)
Thanks for reading; please let me know what do you think. Good luck.