March 27, 2017 Monday
Bedtime Story
From Principia Mathematica to Nicolas Bourbaki
It seems till date only a handful of men have read Principia
Mathematica (they obviously got to be mathematicians since most average mortals
don’t dare even go near that book).
Of those who have read it, I wonder how many were able to fathom
its reasoning that were laid as foundation of mathematics from pure logic.
Not only this book makes for an impossible reading, even printing and
publishing of this treatise turned out to be a monumental task.
Most of us barely use mathematical notations while typing on the
word document on our computers.
Those that do on rare occasions, like I had to do for my bedtime
stories, will realize what a task it is to get them printed out in the manner one
would like to; more so when one has to write complex equations.
The old word document does not even have the software for most of
mathematical notations; only the new one does.
Even with that, it is a painstaking job to get the equations in
the desirable manner.
Just imagine what it must have been like for Whitehead and Russell
to get their Principia Mathematica published way back in 1910 loaded with the
weirdest symbols and notations possible.
Russell had to get special fonts made for the mammoth text.
Now, of course, thanks to Microsoft word, fonts are just few clicks
away.
Not then in 1910.
Back then, fonts had to be made out from the real lead metal; in
fact it is said that Russell was seen carting wheelbarrows full of lead fonts
over to the Cambridge Printing Press.
Printing and publishing of Principia Mathematica was not
intellectually taxing but also seriously physically demanding.
And understanding more so.
For the entire exercise of Principia Mathematica was to show that
nearly whole of mathematics could be derived from logic using only the barest
of the starting or primitive axioms.
For Russell, logic was even more primitive than mathematics and
logic, to his consideration, was ‘pure thought’.
If we go back to the history of mathematical notation (and not
logic), the next big development to happen was Nicolas Bourbaki in France
somewhere in 1935.
You may wish to ask “Who is Nicolas Bourbaki?”
Well, there is no one by the name of Nicolas Bourbaki, at least in
the context to my writing.
It is a pseudonym for a group of young French mathematicians from
various French universities who had formed a collective in 1934.
We shall take up this curious Bourbaki in the nights to come.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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