Is math a kind of art?

Normally, when you think about math, the word "creativity" doesn't readily come to mind. Playing his best devil's advocate, Robert Krulwich challenges the panel to explain the "beauty" of a formula or the "elegance" of a proof. Is math a kind of art? Can a great mathematical idea be compared to a work of Shakespeare? Can it be poetry in numbers, or ideas? Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy and author Simon Singh explain how, once one gets past arithmetic and into the big ideas driving mathematics, it can become a highly creative, artistic, and even emotionally charged endeavor.

Original Program Date: June 3, 2011

The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries. Our mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for all the latest from WSF.

[mrflinstone]

This is interesting, some power dynamics happening in the talk but I think math and art are both human inventions that emerge in attempt to describe or make sense of the world. Math is not 3+3=6 but theories and abstract ideas being represented through iconography in the same way that art is not about the final product but about the significance of it and the intention of the artist

[danphillips]

Literally the worst points I've ever heard from Robert Krulwich. Thank god all the mathematicians put him in his place ! Maths is definitely an art!