More than meets the eye

MATHEMATICS is not just about counting. It comes from the Greek word máthema, which means knowledge, study and learning.

Broadly defined, it’s the study of such things like quantity, structure, space, and change; including the study of shapes and motions of physical objects. This involves counting, measuring, and calculating.

Great minds have noticed there is some form of mathematics at work in the world, or more comprehensively in the universe.

Things operate in a kind of mathematical formula, which is what we can regard as the laws of nature. There is a fixed pattern, which shows that – to put it very simply – if this is what it is now, then it will be like that later.

It is as sure as when we add two to three, we get five. Thus, mathematicians seek out patterns and from these patterns, they can conjecture the resultant patterns.

Mathematics is essential in many fields of study such as natural science, social science, engineering, medicine, and of course, finance or economics.

Nowadays, mathematics has been classified under ‘pure mathematics’ and ‘applied mathematics’.

The difference of them can simply be explained as the latter is the practical application of the former. Of course, learning mathematics, at the outset, has to start with knowing what is 1, 2, 3.