ABSTRACT
In 1623, the great Renaissance figure Galileo Galilei, a founder of modern science, wrote that the book of nature is “written in the language of mathematics.” Math is a product of the human mind, but it has been inspired by nature and in turn use it to analyze nature. Interviewing mathematicians and math communicators, the film elicits their childhood experiences with numbers that inspired them, such as mentally making change in a family shop within the complicated English system of pounds, shillings, and pence; or being challenged to use speed and distance to find arrival times for trips in the family car. Sara Santos, founder of MathsBusking, which provides entertaining mathematical street experiences, explains how such encounters lead to higher levels. The power of abstraction to encompass a multitude of things gives pure math its real-world influence in telecommunications, laser technology, smartphones, and more, as the interviewees point out.
