MOVIE REVIEW: To Infinity and Beyond

Another instalment of the Story of Math, this time we focus on modern-day mathematics, its mathematicians, equations and its philosophies.  A German mathematician named David Hilbert. He proposed 23 mathematical problems and these problems would be core findings on modern day mathematics. George Cantor amazingly understood infitinity, at first the concept of infinity was confusing and it was very hard to grasp the full concept, but Cantor fully understood its notion, infinity isn’t just in whole numbers but in fractions, that there lies infinity inside two normal numbers. He understood on what to be an impossible concept, mathematicians have this innate ability to think outside the box, to really dig down on the complex understandings on which normal humans cannot fully understand. Like the description, Poincare would understand complex mathematics and was very good at it. Even though he wasn’t working his subconscious would do the work for him. An amazing skill that no normal being can do, this led to his findings about the different orbital paths of multiple heavenly bodies. This also led to the widely known and very interesting theory as the chaos theory on which tiny changes can have huge amounts of effects.

                The concept of topology is quite simple. Basically its bendy geometry, in which 2 shapes are the same if you can morph one to another without cutting it. One mathematician named Perelman, understood well on the dynamics of shapes, looking at possible ways that three-dimensional shapes can be morphed. Perelman is quite humble, he would better be out solving mathematical problems rather than acquiring awards and recognition, a core behaviour that would apply to all mathematicians.

                Hilbert believed that mathematics was the key to understanding concrete truth and a tool to achieve certain knowledge. He declared that unsolvable problems did not exist and anyone and everyone can solve it. His saying goes “We must know, we will know” was  key for mathematicians on solving their problems, that there is no reason on why they solve problems but finding out the absolute truth.

                Godell had a unique perspective on mathematics, quite opposite of that of Hilbert. His Incompleteness Theorem spearheaded the foundations of logic and reasoning, it would turn out that you would have an answer but cannot be proven. After the Nazi regime mathematicians and scientists were silenced, not much discoveries were found. Even Hilbert was taken in with the wrath of the Nazis. After this the mathematical baton was given to the East.

                On the new world, different mathematicians on the east were interested in old mathematicians work such as Cantors Continuum Hypothesis which was proven by Paul Cohen. There were even female mathematicians, most of them fled from Nazis, they had potential. Then the first ever woman to be ever elected as the president of the American mathematical society, Julia Robinson. She was a strange and different kind of girl, she was mostly alone and at an early age had a quirk for numbers and patterns. Julia was famous for her Robinson Hypothesis in which he took up Hilbert’s 10^th problem.

                Robsinson could not solve this problem until a Russian mathematician named Yuri Matiyasevich solved it when he was just 22 years old. But he wasn’t the only young mathematician, Galois was only 20 years old when he died but he developed Algebraic Geometry, how mathematical equations and structures can be used in geometry, algebra and topology. Even greater mathematicians such as Nicholas Bourbaki published great amount of works, but Bourbaki was actually a pseudonym for a group of French mathematicians. Grothendiek viewed mathematics differently and understood it in its most fundamental ways, that basic understandings could solve complex problems. But Grothendiek turned his back against mathematics and chose politics. A sad loss for mathematics, nowadays only there are only few that has the passion and ideals for solving mathematical problems. In previous instalments we explained that mathematics has a huge effect on technology, the more complex the mathematics is the more significant it is to practical application. The ultimate purpose of math is to find truth; removing any uncertainty and finding absolute reality.