I . Follow the links above and watch the video “Famous Women Mathematicians”.

II. Complete the sentences with the right option.

1. Steve Jones says it’s not an easy topic to speak about women-mathematicians because there are … a lot of women-scientists // few women-mathematicians // a lot of women-scientists, but few of them are mathematicians.

2. Steve Jones chose to speak about Mme Curie and K. Okikiolu because they … represent different aspects in math // are the greatest women-mathematicians.

3. Marie Curie couldn’t have succeeded in radiology without … her husband’s help // being a mathematician.

4. Katherine Okikiolu, a … theoretical // practical … mathematician, comes from … US // UK // Nigeria.

5. K. Okikiolu became a professor in… mathematics // physics // mathematics and physics … in Elliptical differential operators, that is a … small part // vast area … of mathematics.

III. Speak about other famous mathematicians and about their contribution to mathematics.

Summary Writing

Text C. Mathematical Beauty

Many mathematicians derive aesthetic pleasure from their work, and from mathematics in general. They express this pleasure by describing mathematics (or, at least, some aspect of mathematics) as beautiful. Sometimes mathematicians describe mathematics as an art form or, at a minimum, as a creative activity. Comparisons are often made with music and poetry. Bertrand Russell expressed his sense of mathematical beauty in these words:

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.”

Paul Erdős expressed his views on the ineffability of mathematics when he said, “Why are numbers beautiful? It’s like asking why is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don’t see why, someone can’t tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren’t beautiful, nothing is.”

Music theorists often use mathematics to understand music. Indeed, mathematics is “the basis of sound” and sound itself “in its musical aspects... exhibits a remarkable array of number properties”, simply because nature itself “is amazingly mathematical”. Though ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Mesopotamians are known to have studied the mathematical principles of sound, the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece are the first researchers known to have investigated the expression of musical scales in terms of numerical ratios, particularly the ratios of small integers. Their central doctrine was that “all nature consists of harmony arising out of number”.

From the time of Plato, harmony was considered a fundamental branch of physics, now known as musical acoustics. Early Indian and Chinese theorists show similar approaches: all sought to show that the mathematical laws of harmonics and rhythms were fundamental not only to our understanding of the world but to human well-being. Confucius, like Pythagoras, regarded the small numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 as the source of all perfection.

abstract algebra and number theory. Some composers have incorporated the Golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers into their work.

Mathematics speaks to the mind, poetry to the heart. Finding the link between mathematics and poetry is a challenge. The reason for this is the fact that mathematics deals with reasoning, calculating, proving, and then resulting in one final answer; whereas poetry deals with rhymes, feelings, symmetry, and poetry always offers more than one solution. However, with the introductory quote above, a very interesting link can be drawn to connect two very extreme studies to be related together. This connection is made taking humans as a link between the two. That is, we use our mind to do mathematic calculations, we use our heart to express thoughts or feelings through poetry, and since our heart and mind are connected to each other, there should be a way to link mathematics and poetry together.

(from wikipedia.org)