My relationship with pi probably began when I was a schoolboy...srinivasa ramanjuam
philoshopy of mathematics
Exploring the concepts, ideas, and results of mathematics is a fascinating topic. On the one hand some breakthroughs in mathematical thought we will study came as accidents, and on the other hand as consequences of attempts to solve some great open problem. For example, complex numbers arose in the study of the solution of cubic polynomials. At first distrusted and ultimately rejected by their discoverers, Tartaglia and Cardano, complex numbers were subsequently found to have monumental significance and applications.
In this course you will see firsthand many of the results that have made what mathematics is today and meet the mathematicians that created them. One particularly interesting attribute of these "builders" of mathematical structure is how clear they were about what to prove. Their results turn out to be just what is needed to establish other results sometimes in an unrelated area. What is difficult to understand for the ordinary mathematics students is just how brilliant these people were and how tenaciously they attacked problems. The personality of the greatest mathematicians span the gamut from personable and friendly to arrogant and rude.
Nonetheless, it is the mathematics that is important. For the most part we will focus on the subject itself.