What is the charm of mathematics?

When I was in primary school and junior high school, I liked reading at home, not serious books, but various leisure books (such as martial arts novels and romance novels). ) My dad bought it. Then I remember that there is a book called "The Charm of Mathematics", which talks about many famous mathematical problems, but they are all problems that both primary and junior high school students can understand; I remember that there were three major problems at that time: ruler drawing, ancient Greek mathematics and many famous mathematical problems, and later the formula for finding the roots of quintic equation-in this process, I mentioned the formula for finding the roots of cubic equation by imaginary number Kardan method, and then the author commented: "Even if all three roots are real roots, the formula for finding the roots can't bypass the imaginary number, and it needs to go through the imaginary kingdom to reach the real world; Mathematicians are forced to accept imaginary numbers. " Then it is mentioned that the ancient Egyptians liked to divide the score into the sum of the scores in the form of 1/n. They thought that the score in the form of1/n was a good score, except for 2/3? Then discuss how to divide the fraction by the sum of fractions with the numerator 1 to minimize the maximum denominator or the number of terms. Then I also mentioned some series expressions of pi (at that time, of course, I didn't know that thing was called series, only that it looked beautiful. Of course, one of the most famous problems mentioned is Fermat's last theorem, which is very old. My dad probably got it from some second-hand bookstall. It says that Fermat's last theorem has not been solved (so it is estimated to be a book published before the early 1990 s), and then it tells the proof process of this theorem. He metaphorically said that mathematicians of all ages used various methods to solve this problem. "Some people attacked head-on, and some people tried to dig a corner to bypass this high wall." Then coincidentally, I later saw wiles's story of solving Fermat's Last Theorem in the popular science articles in primary school textbooks or junior high school textbooks. At that time, I was still quite shocked and amazed-the unsolved problems in the original work may still be solved by people of our time!

But unfortunately, this little book that inspired my interest in mathematics has never been found again. I also tried to search online, but I couldn't find the same version, probably because it was too old. You should understand that when a primary school student first comes into contact with the concepts of "transcendental number", "continued fraction" and "golden ratio", he will feel how beautiful, beautiful and interesting mathematics is! This feeling, like Zhihu's propaganda slogan, seems to have opened the door to a new world and never wanted to go out again. I still remember quarreling with my deskmate in elementary school, saying that negative numbers can be expressed by root signs, "You'll know when you learn imaginary numbers later", and she looked disdainful. I still remember telling my classmates that "weather forecast is realized by solving differential equations", although I didn't know what differential equations were at that time. . But to be honest, I was interested in physics and relativity at that time (similar to many civil subjects, covering my face). . ), when I was in junior high school, I repeatedly read the chapter of special relativity in high school physics textbook, and I never forgot it, and all kinds of magical pictures flashed in my mind. Some people may know that I used Einstein's screen name on other online platforms, mainly because I was shocked when I first came into contact with the theory of relativity, so I naturally became a fan of my old love.

As for later, high school math scores have been very good (of course, can not be compared with the competition party. . ), after entering the university, my math scores are still very good. Since I have the ability and motivation (interest) to learn, why not learn? So this is a very pleasant decision. Now I am gradually mature, and I am no longer a math kid in those years. My views on mathematics have naturally changed-for example, I realized that mathematics is much more difficult than I expected. For example, I realized that there is a larger modern mathematics system besides elementary mathematics. Mathematics is not just a "collection of interesting facts", but a university problem based on axioms, logic and proof, relying on imagination and inspiration, and calculating/analyzing/demonstrating in a down-to-earth manner. From then on, I will no longer "see" math like grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden, but "do" math seriously; This process will naturally be much harder, but there are also many gains.

The reason why many people like mathematics may really be that they have a sense of accomplishment in solving mathematical problems, but I really like mathematics not because of solving problems, but because I have been exposed to some interesting mathematical facts since I was a child, so I became interested in mathematics very early. Contrary to my own short life experience, I sincerely thank those who have devoted themselves to the work of popular mathematics, because good general mathematics books can really stimulate children's interest in mathematics. I also hope to eliminate some misunderstandings/prejudices/stereotypes about mathematics and mathematics workers in society; To paraphrase Ke Jie's evaluation of Go after the man-machine war: "In fact, mathematics is really not that difficult (this sentence is not necessarily true. . ), learning math is really a very interesting thing (this sentence is probably right) "