Fascinating fractal images opened a new era in computer graphics. Although fractals with small-door have entered into film's industry, their application is widespread in this area today. Paintings of Dutch fine artist M.C. Escher looks like some fractals. Father of fractals, mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot said that this was not a coincidence because the artist Escher had books whose authors were followers of mathematician Henri Poincare, in which the drawings were similar to fractals. On the other hand, Benoit Mandelbrot had the ability to imagine an analytical problem as a geometric shape and thus finds the solution. What appeared first: images or equations?
Dear Dragoljub,
No doubt, images appeared first.
People first observed the natural objects and got an idea of repeatative structures in nature.
This was taken into Mathematical framework . Then scientists created images using that Mathematics.
Thanks
N Das
Concerning humanity and culture, the image appeared first.
Scripture evolved from book-keeping (simple economic equations).
Pictorial version of any abstract concept is more fascinating than its equations
I'm sure the images came before. But in course of the development of the science, the abstract mode of representation took an increasingly important place. The science of the late 18th - mid-20th centuries is mostly abstract - symbolic (formulae). Modern children (however, many of them have already reached a completely "mature age" ...) are spoken of as "visuals". Perhaps this is a consequence of the development of visual arts (cinema, etc.). In modern scientific research, "pretty pictures" take an increasingly important place. Is it a return to the roots, or degradation?
This is a very interesting formulation of a question related to our consciousness. I think the answer depends on what kind of consciousness this question refers to. It is one thing if we are talking about ordinary consciousness, and another thing if we are talking about the consciousness of a scientist, for example, a mathematician or a physicist. Stephen Ternjik has already hinted at this fact in his short commentary. Indeed, as the first signs of culture in human civilization, we can consider rock "painting", which is some kind of images. I think this rock "painting" was the source for the emergence of writing later. Letters and words from them are already "mathematical equations".
On the other hand, indeed, the sacred scripture and the God and his image, for example, could have formed as a result of the presence of already some texts ("equations") associated with the everyday life of people, for example, economic life. So the answer here is the exact opposite of the previous answer. In philosophy, this fact would be called the dialectical unity of opposites.
Now a little about the way of thinking of mathematicians or theoretical physicists in their professional field, in connection with which this question was raised by Dragoljub Sarovic. I will only touch on theoretical physicists. For mathematicians, I think the same thing happens. First, you, as a professional in the exact sciences, write formulas and equations on paper, guided by a certain exact knowledge, in order to gain new knowledge. Having received new knowledge in the form of new formulas and equations, you try to correlate them with "old" knowledge in order to include this new knowledge in a single picture of knowledge. The method of mechanical switching is not suitable here because it is meaningless: after all, you have already gone along this formal chain of formulas and equations forward. Formally going back along this chain to "have fun" is not interesting at all. Therefore, your consciousness begins to synthesize some rather abstract images, and each creator may have his own, in order to realize what the meaning of that new knowledge in the form of formulas, that you just received, is. The craving for the synthesis of knowledge and the acquisition of new meanings is an inalienable property of a developed human consciousness. And this craving is poured out in the practice of thinking in the mutual supplement of formal knowledge with figurative knowledge. For example, in theoretical physics, and indeed in physics in general, people often reason at a qualitative level. In other words, at the level of certain physical images and representations, the totality of which, ideally, represents what is called the physical picture of the world. This physical picture of the world is based on fundamental mathematical formulas and equations. On the other hand, "aerobatics", for example, in theoretical physics is the fact that often in the creative process in your mind mathematical formulas or some kind of formal laws arise that later turn out to be correct, and which, in particular , are confirmed experimentally. And this fact of the emergence of correct guesses in a developed consciousness is based on the correct physical picture of the world, which this consciousness possesses. In other words, the correct system of qualitative images in the mind and its ability to use this system paves the way for obtaining precise formal knowledge. Then this exact knowledge will form, in turn, the basis for improving the qualitative physical picture of the world.
Images have greater impact than words and symbols. Graphs show better comparisons than statements and equations.
Dear Dragoljub,
No doubt, images appeared first.
People first observed the natural objects and got an idea of repeatative structures in nature.
This was taken into Mathematical framework . Then scientists created images using that Mathematics.
Thanks
N Das
At first, it would be shaped an imagine of the image.Then, by conducted processes upon that, it would be created an equation.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Books