With Morgan Hill’s second annual Math Mardi Gras coming up, I can’t help but wonder what old Archimedes might think of the South Valley. No doubt the ancient world’s greatest mathematician would definitely give a hearty high-five to our region.
In case you don’t remember your high school history, Archimedes is famous as the dude who one day jumped out of his bathtub and ran stark naked through his neighborhood streets shouting “Eureka! I’ve found it!” He’d just discovered the principle of water-volume displacement.
Archimedes, who lived from 287 to 212 B.C., is considered by many historians to be the first true mathematical physicist because he put many of his math discoveries to practical use. Some of the stuff he discovered – such as his approximate calculation for pi – significantly shapes our own modern society.
Now you’re probably wondering, what has this nerdy Greek guy got to do with us 21st Century folks here in the South Valley? Well, I have a hunch Archimedes would definitely be impressed by our region of coastal California because, in a couple of years, Morgan Hill will open the world’s most cutting-edge mathematical research center. It will be located at the site of the former Flying Lady Ranch in the foothills east of the city.
This amazing math mansion’s architecture is inspired by the famous Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. It will cover 167,000 square feet and cost an estimated $50 million. (How do you like them numbers?) It will be run by the prestigious American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) and host some of the modern world’s most brilliant egg-heads in solving perplexing math problems that might stump even Archimedes.
AIM also is the organization that happens to be hosting the annual Math Mardi Gras. This year, the event will be held at the Morgan Hill Community Center from noon to 4pm on Sunday, March 25. Last year, this family-fun event attracted more than 300 local residents who competed in various math games and puzzles for prizes. Perhaps some future Archimedes will be inspired toward a career in mathematics by having fun with numbers at the up-coming Math Mardi Gras.
Like many children, Archimedes himself started off early in his love of playing with number. He must have been a very smart kid because his father sent him at a young age from his hometown of Syracuse, Sicily, to the Egyptian city of Alexandria – the center of learning in the ancient world. In that cosmopolitan city, the young Greek’s brilliant mind quickly was drawn to studying mathematics. He often met with Eratosthenese, the chief librarian in Alexander, and discussed principles of Euclidian geometry and other math topics. Maybe he saw numbers as pieces of a puzzle game as many children still do today. Whatever the stimulus, for Archimedes exploring the world of mathematics became a life-long passion early on.
I recently spoke with Brian Conrey, executive director of AIM, about the appeal of numbers for children. A lot of it comes from the fact that solving a math problem has an innate purity to it, he said. Unlike much of the world which has gray areas where there’s no clear-cut solution, in mathematics there’s no ambiguity. The answer is the answer.
But studying mathematics is not just about fun and games. As Archimedes proved, math has very solid real-world applications that benefit the greater good of humanity, Conrey said. “The more mathematics we understand, the better off we’re going to be,” he told me. “The time span between development and application has become a lot shorter. Math impacts and influences a lot of scientific and technological problems, but science also stimulates a lot of development in mathematics.”
As part of Silicon Valley’s sphere of influence, he also pointed out, South Valley benefits much from math. Many of the high-tech jobs in our region would simply not be possible without mathematical principles discovered over the millennia.
The Internet, which has so dramatically changed our world, would definitely not exist without mathematics. Math is also crucial for innovations in art and photography, the study of the cosmos through space exploration, genome research that is reshaping the way we see life on our planet, ocean studies, medicine, architecture, manufacturing, economics … the list seems to stretch toward infinity.
On a dramatic level, mathematics plays a crucial role in politics, too. One example is the climate crisis debate now going on that will determine the future survival of human civilization. This debate was spurred by the awareness of global warming, a scientific fact that was discovered with the tools of math.
The 21st Century world has many serious challenges it needs to face in the coming decades. Math is an important tool that will help us to successfully meet those challenges. But unfortunately, many American citizens fail to realize how important math is for our survival as a species. Many people – myself included – back in their school days saw math as a boring topic that has no real application for their daily lives.
But once we as a society start to recognize the value of mathematics – how it makes our world a much more beautiful and interesting place to live in – we’ll find better ways to teach young people the various mathematical topics such as algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus and differential equations. This will open up doors for future generations that will enable them to create a better world for all.
And to help stimulate this interest in mathematics in children, I heartily recommend taking your youngsters to Morgan Hill’s Math Mardi Gras. This free event has “something for all ages,” promises Lori Mains, AIM’s outreach coordinator. “It’s the American Institute of Mathematics’s way of giving back to the community and sharing their excitement about mathematics,” she added.
That’s an excitement that would once again make good old Archimedes run naked through the streets of his neighborhood shouting “Eureka!”
For more details about the Math Mardi Gras, contact Lori Mains at (408) 710-0643 or e-mail her at ma********@*****er.net.
