Let's Talk About Math!

Or as our English-speaking European friends like to call it, maths. Math(s) is not a strength for me, although I know several people who are uncommonly gifted in the area and would never disparage their knowledge just because I am not as talented as they. Once, I was watching a Nova on string theory hosted by Alan Alda, who offered up this brilliant analogy, "No matter how hard you try, you can't teach a dog physics." So true, Alan. Likewise, no matter how hard you try, you're not going to teach me theoretical mathematics.

This week, when I randomly opened up my trusty science almanac, I ran across the following in the section entitled, Record Holders: Mathematics.

Largest proper subset of real numbers: Transcendental numbers such as pi and e outnumber all other types of real numbers (such as natural numbers, signed numbers, or irrational numbers). Transcendental numbers are numbers that are not the solution to any algebraic equation.*

All I'm saying, is that back in the day, the Romans conquered most of the known world and they didn't even know about zeros. Think about it.

* Discover Science Almanac. Ed. The Editors of Discover Magazine. 2004. p. 734