Speaker: Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin
Length: 6:25
Rating 4 / 5
Summary
Math should be taught for 3 reasons:
- Calculation: to work out an answer
- Application: to apply the method
- Inspiration: for the fun, beautiful patterns and logical thinking behind it.
Arthur argues Inspiration is underappreciated. He shows the beauty of Fibonacci numbers and how it ties to nature
- number of petals on a flower tends to be Fibonacci number
- patterns in numbers: sum of squares of a Fibonacci number equals another Fibonacci, and cumulative sum of all squares equals product of 2 consecutive Fibonacci numbers.
Maths isn’t just solving for ‘x’, it’s also about figuring out ‘y’ (why?).
Critique
Arthur is excited by the numbers, and gets bonus points for being called a ‘Mathemagician’. The idea of the talk was to refocus maths on finding patterns then investigating how they come about – making it more fun and feel relevant to the world around it.
A fun talk, and especially to fit so many interesting points in 6mins.
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