Ian Stewart: "The same mathematics that can be used for war, can be used for peaceful purposes"

Ian Stewart (Folkestone, England, 76 years old) has always found mathematics fun.

Since he was a child he was skilled with this subject, but it was not until he was 14 or 15 years old, according to what he remembers, when he began to be really interested in them.

The reasons were several.

One of them was the column on mathematical games that Martin Gardner published in

.

This interest led him, along with his friends with whom he shared a hobby, to go to the local library and check out all the math books they found.

Many of them, he recalls, were quite boring, but others were much more interesting than they expected.

To all this was added that, at the age of 17, they ran into a teacher who, in addition to giving them the established syllabus, dedicated much of his free time to teaching them mathematics that he thought was interesting.

All this caused him to end up being a mathematician.

Today, although it has been more than a decade since he left teaching at the University of Warwick, he continues to investigate because, as he argues, “old mathematicians tend to continue anyway because they enjoy doing what they do”.

Stewart is known for his popularizing work: in this century alone he has published more than a dozen books on mathematics.

The last one, What

(Crítica), has come to light on March 9 in Spain.

In it, he takes a tour of the different areas, such as politics or medicine, in which mathematics is fundamental, in order to demystify the popular perception that mathematics is useless for day-to-day life.

Question

: What is mathematics for?

Answer

: They are everywhere.

We use them all the time, but we don't realize we're using them because most of the math we use on a daily basis is now done by technology, computers or phones.

There is a lot of math involved, but we never see what happens, we just get its benefits.

But the problem for mathematicians is that people think we're not doing anything [laughs].

If no one shows you how to use them, then there's no reason you should realize they're there.

Q:

In your latest book you go through different areas where mathematics is fundamental, including some, like politics or medicine, places where you never think they can play an important role.

Do you think that society is aware of the importance they have?

A:

Generally speaking, many people are aware that mathematics is important and why.

The idea that most people have about what mathematics is based on reasoning or what they learn in school.

But it's not really representative of mathematics as a whole.

People have a limited view of who they really are.

And of course this makes them think that the applications are equally limited.

Q:

How could mathematics be used in the war in Ukraine?

A:

There are many ways to use them.

The misuse of math is in things like the technology behind very high powered weapons or being used to make targets hit precisely to improve the size of the blast.

But this is not the purpose of mathematicians, unless they are involved, because the same mathematics that can be used for war can be used for peaceful purposes.

Mathematics is very useful, for example, in organizing to evacuate cities;

there are efficient ways to organize the mobilization of crowds of people.

Q:

According to a study published in January 2022 in

, the average internet user spends almost seven hours a day on the internet.

How can math help keep these devices secure?

A:

Internet security is based on intelligent code systems.

The traditional way of doing this dates back to Julius Caesar, if not before.

It's passing unencrypted messages, and a computer is very good at setting up complex codes, but also breaking them, as we discovered in World War II.

There is a very interesting collection of mathematical ideas for making these secret codes, for making these codes as unbreakable as possible, and of course how to crack other people's code.

In Britain during World War II, German codes were broken using the forerunners of today's computers.

“We always think that computers are very intelligent, but behind them there are always mathematical methods”

Q:

What are the new professionals that emerge thanks to mathematics?

A:

It's not so much about new professions, although there are some.

In fact, all areas of artificial intelligence.

We always think that computers are very intelligent, but behind them there are always mathematical methods.

I believe that mathematicians have been drawn into professions where they were never expected to do this kind of work before.

In this way, new areas are opened up such as assistance to lawyers who are disputing elections, for example.

There's a lot of interest in trying to get people to decide what you want them to decide, trying to reverse the process, trying to rig the decision-making process by the way it's structured.

Particularly in America, but also in the UK and I'm sure somewhere else in the world, we have to have a representative for every major area and the way to do that is for people in this area to vote and elect their member in the parliament.

This sounds very correct and democratic.

But someone decides how to draw the boundaries of those electoral districts.

And if you have any idea how people's voting preferences are geographically altered,

there are many ways to make the opposition lose many of its votes.

If I'm in a party and my party is drawing the lines at the moment and we want to keep the opponents out, we can look at the areas where there are a lot of votes for the opposition party and draw the line so that all that area only gets one seat.

The opposition gets votes in a small number of areas and you spread all your votes over as many areas as possible.

This is not something you would expect mathematicians to be involved with.

so that all that area only gets one seat.

The opposition gets votes in a small number of areas and you spread all your votes over as many areas as possible.

This is not something you would expect mathematicians to be involved with.

so that all that area only gets one seat.

The opposition gets votes in a small number of areas and you spread all your votes over as many areas as possible.

This is not something you would expect mathematicians to be involved with.

Q:

Why do you think math is one of the most difficult and one of the least liked subjects in school?

A:

First of all, because it is a difficult subject.

It is difficult for mathematicians.

When any mathematician is researching he spends a lot of time thinking about the problem and most of the time saying “I don't get it”.

You spend 95% of the time in a state of confusion, but the other 5% is wonderful because that's when you suddenly start to see how it works.

We've all gone through this process in school when we're first taught a new idea, even if it interests you as part of math.

The first time they tell you it doesn't make much sense.

It is a difficult subject in which some ideas accumulate on top of others.

So if you get lost at any point, everything else that follows is meaningless.

“I would not advocate a radical change in teaching, but I think what is needed is for society as a whole to have an understanding of what mathematics really is”

Q:

Do you think it is necessary to change the way of teaching mathematics?

A:

I think the teachers do a very good job, considering the nature of the subject, because the other characteristic of mathematics is that if the answer is wrong, it is wrong.

It's unforgiving in that regard and teachers can't do much about it.

In the UK, what children are taught about maths at school is prescribed by the government.

There is a fixed plan, a complete part about what has to be taught.

I don't think it's a very useful way of teaching anything.

I think that teachers should have more freedom in how they teach.

I would also like to see more emphasis on explaining what math is really useful for, more emphasis on telling where it comes from or the social side of the subject to make it seem more human.

But there is a problem:

you can have a class with kids who are excited about math, but then you give them a problem and they can't solve it.

That's not good, it has to be balanced.

I wouldn't advocate radical change, but I think what is needed is for society as a whole to have a general understanding of what mathematics really is, what mathematicians do, what it is used for.

That is what this book is written for.

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