The closer you look, the more repetitions you will see-like the fronds and leaves of a fern. Credit: Shutterstockįractals are self-referential patterns that repeat themselves, to some degree, on smaller scales. Sometimes, the frond pattern can even be seen in the leaves as well. Britz.Įach frond of a fern shoots off smaller versions of themselves. "The interwovenness of maths and beauty is itself beautiful to me," says Dr. Many mathematical concepts exhibit a similar harmony between pattern and surprise, elegance and chaos, truth and mystery. "Patterned and ordered sounds with a touch of the unexpected can have added personality, charm and depth." "This same idea can be seen in music," says Dr. However, a feature that breaks up the symmetry in a small, interesting or surprising way-such as a beauty spot-adds to the beauty. We feel delight and excitement."įor example, humans perceive symmetrical faces as beautiful. "When we spot something deviating from a pattern-when there's a touch of the unexpected-our brains reward us once again. "Our brains reward us when we recognize patterns, whether this is seeing symmetry, organising parts of a whole, or puzzle-solving," he says. Britz gave a TEDx talk on the Mathematics of Emotion, where he used recent studies on maths and emotions to touch on how maths might help explain emotions, like beauty. Britz shares some of his favorite connections between maths and beauty. Other times, it's the thought processes that make your mind turn in nice ways, the emotions that you get, or just working in the flow-like getting lost in a good book." "Sometimes, the beauty and enjoyment of maths is in the concepts, or in the results, or in the explanations. I've loved it ever since I was a little kid. "From a personal point of view, maths is just really fun to do. He also finds beauty in the mathematical process. Britz has always been drawn to the philosophical questions about mathematics. While combinatorics sits within pure mathematics, Dr. Britz works in combinatorics, a field focused on complex counting and puzzle solving. Thomas Britz, a lecturer in UNSW Science's School of Mathematics & Statistics. "Maths is not only seen as beautiful-beauty is also mathematical," says Dr. Even subjective emotions, like what we find beautiful, can have mathematic explanations.
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