Question: Unlike the Arts, such as writing or music, Mathematics lacks the capacity for creativity. How far do you agree with this statement?
The issue of whether Mathematics has the efficacy to be creative is mootable. The layman may believe that mathematics is mundane and boring, and thus to excel, objectivity is preferred over creativity. Others may argue that mathematics has the potential to be innovative and creative, especially in its real life applications. In this essay, I will examine various perspectives and deliver my opinion on the issue in the closing argument.
From a layman’s perspective, the Arts in today’s modern societies are synonymous with creativity. It is an outlet for expression. A kind of freedom to paint, draft, or vocalise whatever. Mathematics, on the other hand, is often the study of the quantifiable, change, and derivatives. A kind of intense focus that pans into the application of logic and reasoning in various mathematical theories. And for a number of us, this is not the canvas we wish to paint as a platform for creativity. Hence, we feel it lacks the capacity for innovation.
However, on closer inspection, Mathematics do harbour the efficacy to offer a unique, original and interesting perspective on life’s problems and it has an arguably creative way of illustrating that.
From the point of view of modern governments, sustainable development has been ranking in as one of the biggest priorities and challenges to tackle. In that aspect, mathematics has the ground to flourish as a potential solution. To actualise the potential will require creative thinking. In Singapore, the paucity of land is one of the biggest obstacles to sustainable development. We cannot simply keep building upwards, so we had to learn how to merge various infrastructures together. Today, car parks of new housing estates are more than ever integrated into the actual housing block. In order to do so, a heavy emphasis is placed on the architectural design of this unification and is often seen as an art form. What many overlook is that architectural design requires the application of mathematics. In this example, mathematics provides an alternate and creative solution to a problem faced by millions.
From a marketing perspective, the creative use of mathematics has been consequential to the huge earnings by billionaires. Without the trickeries of statistics, advertisements with pretty products may not have the empowerment of reasoning (embedded in simple statistics) that eventually persuades consumers to purchase the product. In our daily lives, we are often convinced that a product is effective in the staggering figures it provides. Given the example of Dettol, a hygiene brand, marketing its products to be effective in killing 99.9% of germs, consumers are easily coaxed of the fact that Dettol is the product to buy, and is superior to its rivals. Besides Dettol, all over the world, from multi-national companies to small enterprises, they have all leveraged on the creative use of statistics – a branch of mathematics – to lure people into buying their products.
In viewing problems or the world, the creative application of mathematics is almost essential. In designing a land with specific instructions require the innovative use of mathematics. In this example, the instruction was to design an area of land with hundred fences. The goal was to maximise land area. To solve this problem, one could physically plot down the fences and conduct “trial and error” in order to find out the perfect combination to maximise land area. Well, with mathematics, that could all be solved with a couple of equations. Through the creative implementation of various trigonometric functions and calculus, we are not only able to come up with an area that is maximised given the hundred fences, we are also able to input the information in a simulated plot of land. We have saved dozens of manpower and time. This is merely one application of mathematics, done creatively, and there are countless examples like this. Mathematics has the potential to be creative if applied correctly.
To reduce Mathematics to addition, subtraction would be forgetting and overlooking the application of it and its impact on every single infrastructure in this world. It is the equivalent of simplifying a painting as just a painting with no backdrop or history. We should not see Mathematics as a subject that is rigid, rigorous and structured because even basic Art can be rigorous and structured. Mathematics is a kind of art that delves into a human’s logic and intellectual processes in an amalgam of both numbers and reasoning. It is an art form that solves modern day problems for various stakeholders through its creative uses.
0 Comments