Chandra K. Pjr

I adore mathematics, more precisely numbers. I don’t need cups of coffee to keep my body and mind going till late into the night. Give me a tough problem and you won’t find me close my eyes before it is completely conquered. So why numbers, like a romantic lover, keep me active at a time I should easily succumb to my bodily needs? What is it about these mathematical entities that I, like all the lovers of mathematics, find so fascinating?
For me, it all began about seven years ago when my brother revealed to me that there are infinite numbers of prime numbers. He, honestly, also told me that this fact was first proven by Euclid more than thousand years ago. The simplicity of the argument and the grandness of the theorem thereby achieved made me wonder how mysterious yet comprehensible these counting numbers actually were. I was twelve years old then.
As time slid by, my understanding and appreciation of numbers and mathematics as a whole soared to new heights. I began to work independently, attempting to create my own new theories. Sometimes I succeeded in discovering unknown patterns but most of the time I had to accept failures. However, I believe anybody who does mathematics for the sake of pleasure and fun never fails just as recreational sportsmen never fail.
Mathematics is the symphony of logical reasoning, an artistic illustration of reality. And numbers are the skeleton of this art; they are the perfect representations of our real world imperfections. Five plus five is always 10 not because we have defined it so but simply because nature has made it so. Grigori Perelman solved the Poincare conjecture not because he was inventive enough but because he was keen enough to see the portrayal of reality in these symbols.
Human mind has not taught itself to create circles or ellipses but rather we have plucked them from the real world. The sun is circular, so is the moon. Are they not? Numbers are like colours and mathematicians are the painters; they take some basic ideas technically called axioms and with them create entirely new ones which we call theorems. All numbers are made from the natural numbers just as all colours are made from the primary ones.
This becomes quite clearly evident as we closely study the history of the development of number system – from the discovery of natural numbers by the Egyptians to the discovery of complex numbers during the 17th century. One remarkable property about numbers not known ever before was discovered by Descartes; he showed that even geometrical figures can be represented by numbers thereby creating co-ordinate geometry. In short, numbers are everywhere.
With numbers, economics and finances thrive. On numbers and its equations, physics and chemistry leap ahead. The concept of numbers has brought our world from the darkness of Stone Age to the glories of modernism. As Leopold Kronecker said, “God made the integers, all else is the work of man”. As a curious man, I can’t help but go on creating all possible things with the help of God’s integers. And I assure you, for that I won’t even need a sip of coffee.