I'd say that, well, mathematics goes from the simple numbers (additional, subtraction, multiplication) to the more complex calculations (integrals, derivatives, econometrics, differential geometry) and then back again. Some famous dead guy said: "God made the natural numbers, the rest is the work of man."
My favourite area of mathematics is number theory. It has questions like "Prove: for any multiple of 9, the sum of its constituent digits is 9, e.g. 9 x 2 = 18, 1+8 = 9. 9 x 4 = 36, 3+6 = 9. " (the actual question doesn't ask for the specific case of 9, it asks for modulo (n-1) in base n., and it doesn't ask in the specific case of the natural numbers, but in the general case of the ordinals.)
If you aren't the sort of person who can "see the beauty in mathematics", be thankful, because it's a highly mesmerizing, hypnotizing beauty, like the siren song that you hear before the cracking and splinter of planks that is the sound of your ship crashing into the rocks. Abstract mathematics will likely have no practical use whatsoever for the next few hundred years, so any non-professional venture into it is, quite literally, a complete waste of time.
The ability to remember a large number of digits of pi is apparently a good party trick, though. (:
13 Nov 2011, 2:42 pm
