Maths

Mathematics is one of the most beautiful language that doesn’t get love. In my opinion, it is a universal language. It is not limited by location. It remains objective. Its answers are exact. It lets you know when approximations are used. You can’t cheat its system because it doesn’t bend to your will. Nature is indifferent and math exists to describe it.

Math stands as the root and trunk, with many branches in different subject fields. Math is simple. Its complexity lies in combining multiple simple theorems. At its core, it is simple. This is only obvious after complete comprehension.

In my journey of understanding math for my thesis, I have found the reason for my choppy progress. My usual method has been; read the formula, learn the derivation, solve enough examples, pass the exam, and move on. But why? Why that formula and not the other? What other ways exist for solving the problem? Is it optimal? I’ve learned to slow down and understand. Fully understand. Developing a formula to describe a device requires answers to these questions. Combining numbers arbitrarily could lead to ill condition equations, which fail to explain your system.

Math doesn’t need to have an obvious application. Even though it always has one, if you look hard enough. I learnt this after watching some of Grant Sanderson (3Blue1Brown) videos. The excuse for not following math often lies in its abstraction. An excuse I fully subscribed to after I lost my edge in maths. Yet, as I rediscover, I figure out that abstraction isn’t the issue. The gaps in understanding its behaviour is. Math models the world. It can explain useful physcial occurrencs. Like the beautiful simplification of the Navier-Stokes equation for laminar flows. It explains its reversibility as the absence of dependence on time. Or abstract concepts like derivation for the area of higher dimension circles. Math is an art. Like painting, it could depict understandable shapes or only colours splashed across a canvas.

Such is the case with math. It forms into beautiful equations. Giving you that satisfying eureka of “so that’s why.” I bury myself deep in this rediscovery, of my love, my bride, my friend. The one that lit the spark in my eyes as it presents itself in tough challenges. My long lost partner. For now, a cayon exists between me and it. But it stands off on a cliff on the other side. Beaming a smile with the sun behind its back. Waiting patiently for me to cross over, that we should walk together again.

I am surprised at the tears that stain my eyes at the moment.

Here lies a heart, beating once again.