Euclid and Beauty - Reflection

 This past week I found myself wanting to incorporate ‘ancient problems’ as I developed lecture resources, namely so I could demonstrate the ancient nature of what was being discussed (geometric sequences). After some digging, I found question 79 in the Rhind Papyrus which I adopted in a modern context. This new-found desire to leverage ancient problems inspires me to take the information in ancient books (such as ‘Elements’) much more seriously.

Although I’ve read about Euclid and his Elements before, I now find myself much more interested in this material than ever before. Although the study of these books is a daunting task, I suspect it would be well worth my time so that I might more easily know where to search for source material as I continue to develop resources.

My partner and I agree that ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. With this in mind, I suspect that many (if not all?) people who see the beauty in ‘Elements’ are those already deeply familiar with mathematics. It is a generally accepted notion that simplicity and generality are highly valued by mathematicians. As such, I can only speculate on the impact Elements must have had at the time of its release - to see the world of mathematics derived from such simple postulates would have been peak intellectual experience. In the years to follow, those who would have learned with Elements would come to appreciate its simplicity. It is only after this appreciation that any student would see Beauty in this place .

Beauty is subjective and (I suppose) relates to what the subject values. As a drummer, I value complex rhythms – those who have not invested time in understanding rhythms and patterns would likely fail to see beauty in the same places as me. In this way, I’d argue that beauty is a relationship between two subjective places, one of which is probably a human.