As a part of the Mathematics year attempts are being made to bring forth the 'fun' aspect of maths to counter the prevalent image of the subject as a 'terror subject'. Maths is not all number crunching. In fact most of the important results in the subject call for logical reasoning rather than tedious numerical calculations.
As a schoolboy i recall spending a lot of my spare time on solving mathematical puzzles. There are numerous books of such collections of puzzles and paradoxes. Logical reasoning is required to solve or understand them. Unfortunately, there are very few such books in India's local languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, etc. One hopes that part of the interest and momentum generated by the Mathematics Year will be devoted to the creation of literature on recreational mathematics in local languages.
An example of recreational mathematics may suffice to illustrate the kind of problems that one encounters in this type of mathematics. A man wishes to take his three possessions across the river. They are a cow, a pile of grass and a tiger. He is told that the boat is of limited capacity and so at one time he can take only one of the three items across. Also, if the man leaves the cow and the grass unattended, the cow will eat the grass. Likewise if the tiger and the cow are left unattended the tiger would eat the cow. So how will he take these items safely across?
The solution, as you will find, does not involve numbers: it calls for logical thinking. Solving such problems the student will discover that he or she begins to appreciate mathematics better.
As a part of the highlights of this year, a mathematical museum named after Ramanujan will be set up in Chennai with models, exhibits, movies, etc. bringing the message of mathematics loud and clear: that it is not a terror driven subject but the center of so much intellectual fun.
As a schoolboy i recall spending a lot of my spare time on solving mathematical puzzles. There are numerous books of such collections of puzzles and paradoxes. Logical reasoning is required to solve or understand them. Unfortunately, there are very few such books in India's local languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, etc. One hopes that part of the interest and momentum generated by the Mathematics Year will be devoted to the creation of literature on recreational mathematics in local languages.
An example of recreational mathematics may suffice to illustrate the kind of problems that one encounters in this type of mathematics. A man wishes to take his three possessions across the river. They are a cow, a pile of grass and a tiger. He is told that the boat is of limited capacity and so at one time he can take only one of the three items across. Also, if the man leaves the cow and the grass unattended, the cow will eat the grass. Likewise if the tiger and the cow are left unattended the tiger would eat the cow. So how will he take these items safely across?
The solution, as you will find, does not involve numbers: it calls for logical thinking. Solving such problems the student will discover that he or she begins to appreciate mathematics better.
As a part of the highlights of this year, a mathematical museum named after Ramanujan will be set up in Chennai with models, exhibits, movies, etc. bringing the message of mathematics loud and clear: that it is not a terror driven subject but the center of so much intellectual fun.
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