Can Math be beautiful?

I didn’t think so until I studied algebra. I love algebra!!

Math is beautiful because everything we breathe, eat, see and touch can be defined in a mathematical equation.

No I cannot do the cool art math stuff though.

Math may possibly be the route of everything, which of course, is beautiful in and of itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_%28number%29

Math is a representation of nature and therefore is beautiful.

MY EYES!! THEY BURN!!

Just as @Dog said, everything can be broken down into some mathematical formula or equation. Hell, I’m sure that the way we perceive beauty could be defined in some mathematical tongue (the Golden Ratio comes to mind).

Math is beauty. And beauty is math.

I have a friend that argues all life can be broken down into chemical formulas.

@faye Yes! And all chemical formulas can be defined in mathematical equations- awesome huh?

beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Yes, I think it can. Math is fascinating.

1×142857 = 142857
2×142857 = 285714
3×142857 = 428571
4×142857 = 571428
5×142857 = 714285
6×142857 = 857142

7×142857 = 999999

1/7 = 0.142857142857142857…

76,293*1 = 076,923
76,293*10 = 769,230
76,293*9 = 692,307
76,293*12 = 923,076
76,293*3 = 230,769
76,293*4 = 307,692

Yes.
I like Pascal’s Triangle
and Fractals
Also, if you ever thought a person was beautiful, apparently it’s because of the golden ratio. I remember measuring all our body parts in class one day.

123456789 * 9 = 111,111,111
123456789 * 18 = 222,222,222
123456789 * 27 = 333,333,333
123456789 * 36 = 444,444,444
123456789 * 45 = 555,555,555
123456789 * 54 = 666,666,666
123456789 * 63 = 777,777,777
123456789 * 72 = 888,888,888
123456789 * 81 = 999,999,999

::sigh:: When it comes to math, I am like a Salieri; smart enough to know how gorgeous it all is, but not brilliant enough to understand how it all works.

try this, it’s pretty awesome: http://www.neave.com/fractal/

@DominicX Sweet!

@drdoombot Both very cool!

@shrubbery Pascal’s Triangle just gave me a boner! That’s frackin’ HOT!

Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.
Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,
And lay them prone upon the earth and cease
To ponder on themselves, the while they stare
At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere
In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese
Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release
From dusty bondage into luminous air.
O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day,
When first the shaft into his vision shone
Of light anatomized! Euclid alone
Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they
Who, though once only and then but far away,
Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay

When mathematicians speak of the beauty of mathematics, they usually refer to an aesthetics of abstractions; pictures, however, are nice too.

@shrubbery Yeah Mandelbrot is wicked… that’s why I trust his take on the economy

@ratboy But then again, for some things, only poetry will due…:)

I can’t do links on the iPhone but I love photos which illustrate the Fibonacci sequence found in nature.

Pinecones, spiral shells, flower seed pods and leaf pattern, etc have a particular type of orderliness that is beautiful when you become aware of the patterns.

135 = 1^1 + 3^2 + 5^3
175 = 1^1 + 7^2 + 5^3
518 = 5^1 + 1^2 + 8^3
598 = 5^1 + 9^2 + 8^3

My father, whose hobby is being a mathematician, certainly thinks so. He also likes many Bach pieces because they make him think of mathematics.

@Sampson I saw this question and immediately thought of phi. I’m glad someone else likes it too.

The Golden Ratio and the Golden Rectangle are based off of the mathematical constant phi. In art and architecture it was said that the paintings and buildings based on phi were the most aesthetically attractive.

One of the ways that mathematics is beautiful is the way things relate to one another. Unfortunately, schools do not emphasize the beauty of what is being taught. For example, when Cartesian geometry is taught, nobody ever gets excited about how simple equations produce pretty pictures or how neat it is that you can solve for a pair of equations by seeing where their graphs intersect.

As another example of how the visual and the algebraic can come together, the formula 1+2+...+n = n(n+1)/2 is not difficult to prove, but there is a nice way of showing the proof visually that can be appreciated by even the most math phobic:

x yyyyy
xx yyyy
xxx yyy
xxxx yy
xxxxx y

The number of symbols in each triangle is the sum from 1 to n. If you put two of them together, you get a rectangle of dimensions n by n+1 so the total number of symbols is n(n+1) and the number in each triangle is half of that or n(n+1)/2

Finally, a number of people here have spoken about the Golden Ratio. I hate to be the one to cast doubt, but I came across this: http://plus.maths.org/issue22/features/golden/index.html
.

9x – 7i > 3(3x-7u).

Find the answer.
That’s the only time I’ll ever find math amazing.

Math is the language of the universe, so of course it’s beautiful.

Look at how often the Fibonaccii series appears in nature.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987 etc.

Mathematical patterns are really beautiful.

”The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents…”

H.P. Lovecraft

Fractals are beautiful. I love geometry, but the rest does not come easily for me. I had a 104 average in geometry, but struggled for a B in Algebra. I think it was an issue of interest.

@Supacase ~ just curious, are you a guy or a girl? the reason I ask is that my math teacher showed us research which demonstrated that typically guys perform much better in geometry rand the spatial maths than girls. I always found that interesting.

I am, a girl… and I loathed geometry!! I barely passed with a C.

I am a female and got thru Intro to Calculus in HS, then went on to Advanced Calculus. Partial Differential Equations finished me, but primarily because the teacher was young, nervous and her hands shook.

@rangerr

I love you.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I love you more for catching it.