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Steven Strogatz was 13, sitting in science class, when he became fascinated with math.
His teacher had asked the class to explore the relationship between the length of a pendulum rod and how long it takes to complete a swing. After testing various lengths and plotting the results on a graph, he found that the data points created a curved shape called a parabola, something he had learned about in algebra.
“It was an almost religious experience,” he said. “Ever since then, I’ve been entranced by this idea that there is an invisible world of mathematics that is secretly structuring the world.”
His early fascination with math would become a lifelong one. Now, as a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell, Mr. Strogatz teaches students how to use math to solve real-world problems.
Mr. Strogatz, who has written several columns on mathematics for The New York Times, is applying some of the lessons he’s learned in his 31 years of teaching at Cornell to a special four-part series for the Health and Science section of The Times: Math, Revealed.
In the series, Mr. Strogatz uses familiar objects to explain complex concepts. In one installment, he looked at the geometry of cab driving using an Etch A Sketch. In another, he used an apple to demonstrate the golden ratio. Each column relies on striking, colorful imagery that helps to illustrate its idea or theme.
In an interview, Mr. Strogatz shared the lessons he’s learned from his reporting and those he hopes readers take away from the series. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Where did you get the idea for this series?
I mentioned to Alan Burdick, an editor for the Health and Science section, that I wanted to write a column that was based on physical, tangible things. The reader I’m interested in is someone who thinks they don’t like math. There are readers who like math, and they’re great, too. But I have a special desire to expand the pool.
The premise behind this series is that people aren’t scared of real things. So if every column starts with an object, like an Etch A Sketch or an apple, it takes away from this feeling that math is abstract, or doesn’t connect to anything in your real life. The series has taken on a life of its own because Alan brought in The Times’s visuals team. They gave the series a really unusual look.
The visuals definitely help ground very complex concepts.
I hope they do. Each installment has a different look in terms of the color scheme. It’s also very whimsical. I tend to write playfully, too. A lot of mathematicians are playful. That’s something we care about a lot in our field.
Playfulness helps with imagination, trying things, seeing new possibilities. Being very rigid doesn’t lend itself to creativity. I think a lot of that is coming through with our choice of colors and images. The words have been an interesting thing, too, because people may be reading this column on their phones. Have you been reading the column in print, or on a phone?
On a computer, actually.
The thinking is that some large fraction of people are going to read it on their phone, so the Visuals team keeps telling me to cut words. The longer it goes, the more bored people get, or they stop reading. This is the attention span of today. We’re trying to harness it. We want to keep it moving fast. I like having the constraint of grabbing someone’s attention and keeping it, which I’m not used to as a professor. With this column, we don’t have too many digressions.
Are there moments when you realize that a concept might be too difficult for readers to grasp? How do you overcome that in your reporting?
I think about that a lot. That’s the art of teaching, and I have the creative pleasure of trying to figure out the right key to unlock the difficulty for someone. Sometimes the difficulty is psychological; some things are just intimidating to think about.
I try to be a friend to readers. Maybe you like art or philosophy, so I try to include those. I try to press different buttons in different columns to relate to the reader. I figure if I press all the different buttons, maybe I’ll press yours.
What do you hope readers take away?
I want them to fall in love a little bit with math, if they’re not already. Or if that’s too ambitious, to understand why someone else might be in love with it. I had a friend who once said to me, “I now want to like math” because of past columns of mine. That’s a step forward.
What lessons will you take away from writing this series?
For me, the biggest lesson or attitude change is the impressionistic style of the imagery we’re using, the fact that the lines don’t have to be lines and could be pencils, for instance. That’s a relaxing of some strictures in my own mind that I think might be helpful.
Your wife is an artist, and you’re a mathematician. Do you engage in each other’s work?
We do a lot of cross contamination. I’m very inspired by her. Our kids are very artsy, too. The whole family is interested in imagination, beauty, expressing yourself and being creative.
There’s no particular divide between math and art. It’s all an expression of the human spirit. It’s just the medium that’s different. My medium is words, equations, images of geometric things. The medium for my wife’s art could be anything — drawing, painting, sculpture. We’re both trying to solve problems and express something.
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