Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Curriculum Resource: Is Math Creative?

This post is in honor of my friend Maria Droujkova of Natural Math...

Do you have students who complain math is "boring," and who prefer something like art because it is "creative"?  If so, this short video might open their eyes to a new possibility.  In it, some leading mathematicians challenge the idea that math lacks the creative possibilities open to, say, Picasso or Shakespeare.  In particular, one speaker discusses how the notion that 1 + 1 = to sometime different than 2 has radically transformed modern society...



This video was taken at a recent World Science Festival from a longer panel discussion entitled Mysteries of the Mathematical Universe.  It touches on a number of fascinating topics, including why Euclid's proof of an infinite number of prime numbers should rock your world, the origin of numbers, and the puzzles that remain for modern mathematician to solve.   You can watch the entire nearly 77 minute video below:

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