Mathematics: From roots up to fruits

    “You have to do it to appreciate it, and doing it requires patience and persistence…The beauty of mathematics is there for you to find.” These are the lines that marked the most and made a big impact for me on understanding mathematics. Right, these lines seem to prove something than hearing those concepts and accepting a certain mathematical concept we know nothing about. Being in love with mathematics is not just about appreciating the equations, reading mathematical journals or knowing the lives and achievements of our favorite mathematicians, it’s reliving it, doing the work and being involved with discovering new mathematical concepts. It is also being able to witness a discovery from a research you dealt and you solved. That’s what “Certain Ambiguity”, a mathematical novel by Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal taught me. That love for mathematics is not just shown by expressing it, by telling it to everyone around but by inculcating to our minds and our hearts the contribution it gave for the world’s progress and by redefining mathematics by tracing its roots up to its fruits.

            As I opened the book, the first image I saw were two men of different ages holding a calculator. The calculator denotes mathematics for sure but what interests me is the real connection of the two men holding the calculator. What’s the real score between them were slowly answered by the next chapters of the book.

            The story started with a flashback concerning a certain math problem given by Bauji to Ravi Kapoor, the main character of the story. Bauji, the term used for “grandfather” in India, gave a calculator that the boy could use in solving the problem. It took time for Ravi to solve the problem, but with his mathematical ability he was able to unlock the mystery of the prime number 7, 11 and 13. He even challenged Bauji for another problem but unluckily his grandfather died the next day. It was very hard for Ravi at first to accept the fact that that his Bauji died since he became very attached to him and even came to a point where he played the jazz music his grandfather had kept. His mother cheered him up by telling him that his Bauji had saved money for him to go to college.

            Being accepted to Stanford, Ravi became uncertain as to what course would fit him and finally decided to take a career in economics. He became friends with his roommate Peter who happened to be a former a student of Nico in one of his class. Nico was a very dedicated teacher who happens to be so into mathematics and who also specializes in the field of Ravi’s grandfather. He invited Peter and Ravi to attend to his class about certain mathematical concepts like infinity. On this course of the story, I found the book very, very interesting. It was really narrative, like you can imagine the possible face of a mathematician and you can examine geometrical shapes and figures through vision. It was amazing how the authors incorporated much information about mathematics to the book and how the reader finds it fun while analyzing the mathematical statements. Add to it the twist that the authors put on Ravi’s grandfather as he was put into jail between the periods 1919 to 1924, how he managed to create and do research about theorems while he was in captivity. To the story, you can observe two different settings which made the book a must-read: 1.) Nico’s lectures about infinity and its role to the society; and 2.) Ravi’s search for truth about his grandfather. As he was trying to discover more and more about the happenings of his father, he also became more and more aware on some of the philosophical discussions about the nature of truth, certainty and mathematics that was studied by his Bauji.

            Many topics were discussed on the book like Zeno’s paradox, infinity, Godel’s Incompleteness theorem, and some of Paul Cohen’s well-known theorems. As he was learning something from Nico’s discussions, he also relates it to what he learns on his discoveries on his Bauji’s research like Eucleidean geometry as well as non-Euclidean geometry. The concepts were well summarized and concise that even a simple student like me could understand the brain-reaping concepts of the mathematics, at least on its general view. Through this book, we have been able to see the different mathematical views of the characters like Adin, Claire, Peter, Ravi and Nico and combine it to form a more stable understanding to mathematics. Despite the subject’s shortcomings like some unsolved theorems and unproved concepts, the book gave us the appreciation to what mathematics has contributed and to what Ravi’s Bauji had contributed not just to the mathematical society but to the world.

            There’s nothing negative that I can say to the book since it really caught my attention and it really is fun to read. I love the Claire-Ravi connection though it was not given highlight on the book. I recommend this book to everyone because it is very educational and you will really learn a lot from it. Even if you started reading it with certain ambiguity, you will end up feeling fulfilled for the new mathematical information that you discovered. You will appreciate here the inspiration given by the roots (Bauji) to the career path taken by the fruit (Ravi).