Creativity Imagination Math
[Music]
i’m
rosie and today i will be focusing on
spotting the creativity and
imagination inside mathematics
so who here wants an ice cream right now
me too but let’s talk about it later
first of all let’s talk about some math
some simple one why is six afraid of
seven
that’s right because seven eight nine
that’s just a simple answer but
on the other hand why are us humans
afraid of mass
that’s because we’re often afraid of
numbers
we sometimes view those numbers as
insurmountable challenge that keeps
hitting on us just look at this figure
and see
if this somehow reminds you of the fear
that you have over mass
if it does that’s because we often
picture those figures
as grand figures which only scientists
and mathematicians will venture to take
a step in
but actually don’t look at these numbers
as just numbers
we sometimes describe math as a language
itself
because we saw human languages are not
even capable of
explaining the complicity of it but
today
i’m here not to just talk about math but
more importantly
let’s talk beyond math let’s talk about
how
math powers imagination and how it helps
us to explore
and even construct the world people
often value math
as only logical reasoning and problem
solving skills
of course math cannot be separated from
those two
but remember there are only tools which
helps us to approach
the nature of math there can be a
pathway to understanding but they are
never the purpose that we’re aiming for
in fact everything and mass lead to
creativity and imagination
now let’s get back to our ice cream
imagine you are holding this ice cream
and
it’s a pretty typical one as you can see
it consists two parts a creamy topping
and a crispy cone
imagine you’re holding it and it happens
to be someone
who just heard my ted talk and you are
inspired to be a mathematician for one
day
um you’re looking at it then you start
randomly through
throwing different mathematical
questions towards this for ice cream
you saw oh how can we figure out the
volume of this topping
or is this beautiful geometric shape
somehow connected to the secret of
fibonacci sequence
great questions of course but then after
a minute you got
bored then tragedy occurs you
dropped it what can we do now
but look at it the cone part is still
good can we
at least pick it up it’s five seconds
rule
it will make a big difference but now
the only thing you have
is a cone it’s just a cone sitting there
doing nothing
so why don’t we do something to it
something exciting like
cut it open that might not sound very
mathematical indeed but
let’s try it because it sounds creative
i’m cutting it open can be fun because
you find several ways of doing it you
can cut it open either like that
or like that or like that and they give
you different outcomes if you look at
them from sideways
that cut gives you a circle that one
gives you
an ellipse and finally that one it gives
you
a curve which we usually call a parabola
these shapes as mathematicians as what
mathematicians always do we
gave them a fancy name we call them
conic sections
and conic sections are actually
everywhere you can find them
from grand human buildings to small
but beautiful nature belongings and
any basketball players here around
if you are one please raise your hand
see we have a lot of basketball players
here
i’m one myself too and what happens when
you throw a ball
chestnut could you please catch this
oops
sorry nice catch anyways but
did you just see what’s happening that
was the parabola that you just created
when you throw a ball you always get a
parabola and parabola
are everywhere you can literally spot it
here’s a parabola and you can spot it
from everywhere
you can spot it when a dolphin jumps out
of water
when a comet sweeps across the sky or
look into a mirror then you’ll find that
your eyes they’re
actually in parabolic structure too
parabolas they are beautiful shapes and
they are just as
powerful at the same time you can find
them
in the world famous building
the golden gate bridge bridges are meant
to be built strong
so that they can support the weight or
heavy loads that’s
acting on it so why is the parabolic
structure
applied in bridges because it actually
helps the bridge
to support any heavy loads that you need
to overcome
when a force is applied to a specific
region
on the bridge the parabola actually has
the ability to
send it down to different parts of the
parabolic structure
because a parabola is placed on evenly
the middle is arching up and the other
parts
are bending down so when the force is
applied
it can distribute it to different places
so that parabolic structure can usually
obtain
much more weight than other structures
such as a straight line or anything else
now let’s think back what we just did
that is called
mass don’t be shocked by me but you are
doing that
with me together math might be the most
imaginative form of art ever you can did
you
just think back we started from simply
a ice cream and it drops and then we
get conic sections and parabola now
we’re here
math is imaginative because it can give
us so many ways of so many different
things
and mathematics every mathematician is
an artist
in their own way for being creative
enough to connect
concepts together and also to start from
only a simple what if and end
with amazingly creative ideas and
connections between things
and our imagination is just never enough
you can always dive deeper imagination
and creativity
actually they often come hand in hand
because every piece of creation
starts from a single idea to try and
also from
imagining and constructing an idea if
you are creative enough
you can even find connections between
this bridge fantastic bridge between
this bridge and an egg
look at that egg what do you find you
can also find parabolic structure in
this egg
you can also picture it as an ellipse or
you can easily picture it as
the con as two parabolic structures that
are connected
actually it works the same way just it
did with the bridge
when a specific force is applied to this
egg
it’s the force got distributed to
different parts of the egg so the shell
can overcome
so much force have you ever tried to
squeeze an egg
with only your palm try it it’s
extremely hard to break the egg there’s
actually a challenge on youtube that’s
called
impossible air crush what impossible
because it’s hard
and an egg by experimenting it people
find out
it actually takes more than 26
kilograms of weight to break an egg
like clutching it in an upright position
26 kilograms that’s almost the weight of
a eight-year-old and
thanks to our parabola they’re so so
powerful
another example of applying parabola can
be
eiffel tower you are having this and
actually i don’t know if you thought
about this eiffel tower is made of all
metals
and these metals they um at total
the eiffel tower approximately weights
ten thousand and a hundred tons
and it’s simply supported by a parabolic
structure
at a base parabolas they’re amazing
and now don’t be shocked by this but you
are doing mass
again using your imagination and
creativity along with me
mass powers imagination and creativity
and those two are actually the essence
of of our
technology and now their world as nicola
tesla once said
facts and ideas are dead in themselves
and it’s the
imagination that brings life to them and
everyone is a mathematician because
everyone has ability to cut a cone open
or create a fantastic perfect parabola
by throwing a ball you are all
mathematicians
and thank you very much and also thanks
for our ice cream