mathematicians
I have a friend who used to think that mathematicians invented new ways for us to add faster. I think I have convinced him that mathematics is what we learn after arithmetic: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, set theory, groups, rings, fields, topology, probability, statistics. once upon a time I knew smatterings of most of these, and the basics of several. I was studying physics at the time, and thought they might be important in that study. confession: I mainly studied them because they were so damned much fun! along the way I made a passing acquaintance of people like Newton, Leibniz, Cantor, Lagrange, Cauchy, Galois, Legendre, Gauss, Fermat, Euler, and probably others, including a few of my instructors. I was in awe of them. the physicists I knew studied real things, like stars, electrons, and sub-atomic particles. mathematicians studied ideas, and the logic that made those ideas special. I could learn about them, but didn't even have an idea how to have an idea about ideas. I am still in awe, and very aware that while I've been away, not only have I lost much of what I knew, I've lost my own adeptness at applying logic, and that while I was forgetting, mathematicians were adding to those domains. if I knew where mathematical east was, I would bow toward it, mathematicians, I salute you, and thank you for the work you do, what you add to what we know.
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