bbc.com
"Mathematics: Why the brain sees math as beauty"
February 12, 2014
Exquisite, beautifully crafted, and magnificent mathematical
formulas. Can formulas be truly described in this manner? According to
researchers at the University College of London, mathematical formulas can
evoke the same sense of beauty as artistic masterpieces and music from the
greatest composers. These researchers have conducted experiments where
mathematicians were shown equations while in a brain scanner. Results showed
that the same emotional brain centers, used to appreciate art, were being
activated by “beautiful” formulas. Therefore, it was concluded that there may
be a neurobiological basis to beauty. This means that when mathematicians
consider a formula beautiful, their medial orbito-frontal cortex is activated.
Strangely enough, this same part of the brain is activated when the
mathematicians were admiring artistic masterpieces like music and paintings. To
the untrained eye, there may not be much beauty in ei∏+ 1= 0, but
in the study, it was the formula of choice for mathematicians. When the
mathematicians were asked why they chose this particular formula, there were
various explanations; “It is simple to look at and yet incredibly profound”, “It
accompanies the five most important mathematical constants: zero, one, e, and
pi”, “It also contains the three most basic arithmetic operations: addition,
multiplication, and exponentiation.” This beauty of math has been missing from
schools. The children have been trained to think that there is no beauty in
math.
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