Math & Computers: Denigrate Purity of Math?

[Noxide]

Although useful, I feel as though computers denigrate the purity of mathematics. There is something rather romantic about doing mathematics while sitting in a candlelit room with pen in hand free from the hum of a computer fan. Does anyone feel the same way?

 

[Evo]

Although useful, I feel as though computers denigrate the purity of mathematics. There is something rather romantic about doing mathematics while sitting in a candlelit room with pen in hand free from the hum of a computer fan. Does anyone feel the same way?

I don't know about doing math, but the candlelight scene was very comforting.

 

[fatra2]

Hi there,

Never forget that the computer will not the math for you. Nowadays, like you pointed out, the blacklikght of a computer screen replaced the candel light, but the math is still done the same way.

 

[BobG]

I don't know about doing math, but the candlelight scene was very comforting.

I can do math by candlelight. I'll even let you play with my slide rule.

(By the way, doing math with a pen? That's very bold and confident.)

 

[Negatron]

Computers bring math to life. The history's greatest mathematicians would condemn you as a fool for doing math the archaic way when having such a device at your disposal.

 

[VeeEight]

Imagine if Ramanujan had a computer instead of hurricane lamps

 

[Evo]

I can do math by candlelight. I'll even let you play with my slide rule.

Oooooh.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Why not go all the way back to drawing circles in the sand with a stick?

 

[Gokul43201]

Wow! All this dissing on the OP for expressing a hardly unreasonable opinion - that computers are useful, but take away from the charm of doing paper and pen work.

 

[CharmedQuark]

I can do math by candlelight. I'll even let you play with my slide rule.

The running joke in my math department is that everyone is doing mathematics in the closet with the light off.

 

[Mech_Engineer]

I personally find nothing romantic or charming about doing math on paper in a candle lit room. In my opinion the faster a problem can be solved, so much the better. I could spend 2 days inverting a 10x10 matrix, or I can let a computer invert a 3,000,000x3,000,000 matrix for me in about an hour...

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't do math by candlelight, I'm more of a jug of wine, loaf of bread kind of guy. I use candlelight for computer work. For romance, my wife and I like to ..., well never mind, that's between her and me.

 

[DaveC426913]

I could spend 2 days inverting a 10x10 matrix, or I can let a computer invert a 3,000,000x3,000,000 matrix for me in about an hour...

Ah, but who gets the credit? You? Or the computer?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Ah, but who gets the credit? You? Or the computer?

If I'm not wrong, Wiles used a computer in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorom. He still got the credit.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Ah, but who gets the credit? You? Or the computer?

As long as you aren't dumb enough to name your computer, it can't get itself on the authors list

 

[DaveC426913]

Ah, but who gets the credit? You? Or the computer?

If I'm not wrong, Wiles used a computer in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorom. He still got the credit.

Yeah, I simply meant to Mech_Engineer. Would he be satisfied and proud of his accomplishment, if his only involvement was to feed the numbers in (kind of like an assistant to the computer).

 

[SonyAD]

The hardware enables you to quickly test the math you develop. As such, it is invaluable.

 

[NeoDevin]

Anyone doing math on paper (with the notable exception of doing it for learning purposes: everyone should do an example by hand at least once) that can be done on the computer is wasting their time. That's not to say that every math problem can be solved on a computer.

A computer is a tool which allows you to leverage and focus your intelligence to much greater effect. In much the same way a hammer leverages your strength of arm and focuses it into extremely high pressures at the head of a nail. You might as well say that pushing nails in with your bare hands is "romantic". Someone might get a nail in that way eventually, but it's still a waste of time.

Add to that the fact that there are many problems which would simply be impossible without a computer (like the previously mentioned diagonalization problem).

 

[jackmell]

On many occasions I've used a computer to help me understand and solve math problems that would have been difficult or impossible for me to do otherwise. I'm interested in contour integration over multifunctions. In my opinion nothing better helps one understand this than the ability to draw the functions and that would be extremely difficult without a computer. Here's an example, an annular region of the real part of the inverse of a 12th degree polynomial. It's beautiful isn't it? Now, what's:

$$\mathop\oint\limits_{\text{Red}} f^{-1}(z)dz$$

Easier when you can see it isn't it?

 

[sshzp4]

Imagine if Ramanujan had a computer instead of hurricane lamps

:D! What a visual there! What a genius!

I prefer my computers. Thank you. Computers are tools. They allow you to store a part of your thoughts in a retrievable, visual form elsewhere while you go and think about some other pertinent issue.

It is also the great democratizer. Some people are not born with the kind of memory and focus that the classical brilliance had, but computers help them achieve similar levels of genius. (Think S. Jobs)

And finally, don't forget the new emphasis/glamor that computers have brought to theoretical mathematics.

 

[Pythagorean]

A lot of the low hanging fruit was picked when computers weren't available. Nowadays, a computer us a ladder to the higher hung fruit.