All the Formulas of the World

Galileo Galilei’s words are: “The Book of Nature is written in the language of mathematics.” Nearly four centuries later, we are still amazed that mathematical methods fit our world so well. Even greater wonder comes from natural-science discoveries made on the basis of mathematical analysis of equations. Building any complex structure—ranging from an ingenious highway interchange to a quantum computer—requires mathematical calculations. To fully understand the workings of gravity or quantum phenomena, we also can’t do without mathematics. But it seems so complicated and tangled! How do we stop being afraid of formulas and learn to love mathematics? Why is it so effective in the natural sciences? Is there a limit to it, or, on the contrary, to understand nature more deeply will we have to create mathematical constructs that won’t fit in the human mind? All these questions are addressed in the pages of this book, and their artistic interpretation is presented in a series of drawings by artist Rosta(n) Tavasiev. Many of them cannot be found with final, unambiguous answers. Still, we continue discussing them and trying to understand how this world works. To do that, we need to overcome the split into “two cultures”: “humanitarians” and “natural scientists.” Let’s try to take another step in this direction.