By Angus Lewis, The University of Adelaide
It’s summer in Australia and Christmas is coming. Friends and family travel from across the country to be together. It’s very exciting for me. You see, I have an interesting family. One of my cousins plays AFL football, one is an eccentric architect, and another works as a banker in Sydney. And one of my brothers studies medicine in Brisbane. All very exciting people.
Then there is me. I am studying mathematics at The University of Adelaide in my hometown. You may disagree but I think I have the most exciting occupation. Maths gets bad publicity. Probably from the repetitive arithmetic they make you do throughout school. Timetables, arithmetic, all that. But that is not what maths is. We have calculators and computers for that. Maths is diverse. Mathematical ideas range on a spectrum: from the abstract and hard to imagine spaces of topology and geometry, to the logic of probability; from the rigorous proofs of analysis, to the assumptions of statistics. And the applications of mathematics are diverse too. Computer graphics, engineering, finance, biology, sociology, economics, and the list goes on. There truly is something for everyone in mathematics. Personally, I love mathematical modelling. The ability of mathematical models to make thought provoking inferences about real world phenomena is compelling.
The problem is, wonderful mathematical ideas are often lost in translation. Detailed notation, shorthand symbols and excessive jargon, while necessary to compose rigorous proofs, scare off those who are unfamiliar with it. It scares me, and I study maths! When I think about my favourite teachers I have had over the years there is one stand out quality to them. Their ability to communicate complex ideas. And I find these people as interesting and exciting as the maths itself. I believe the key to enjoying maths is to build on simple ideas. These simple ideas stack on top of each other to build grand and seemingly complex ideas.
However, I realise not everyone is like me. Some people may not find probability models as interesting as I do. But that is where the diversity of maths comes in. My architect cousin, he is not like me, his head is filled with abstract, out of the square ideas. When I discuss maths with him, I introduce him to the abstract theories of pure mathematics. Similarly, with my banker cousin, I talk about mathematics used to model risk and financial markets. And with my football playing cousin, I talk about statistics in sport, such as techniques employed by the Oakland Athletics Baseball team to assemble a competitive team despite financial disadvantages. With my doctor-to-be brother I talk about statistical models in medical studies.
I guess the main point I am trying to make is that maths is for everyone. Mathematical ideas are as diverse as people and anyone can find their niche. And as mathematicians it is our job to help those less familiar with maths to explore these amazing ideas.
Angus Lewis was one of the recipients of a 2015/16 AMSI Vacation Research Scholarship.