MANDELBROT, FATHER OF FRACTAL GEOMETRY DIES

THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO THE FATHER OF FRACTAL GEOMETRY.
The father of fractal geometry famous for the Mandelbrot set has died. His preoccupation in life was to search for hidden order in nature, or so to speak, the beauty in nature and its infinity.
http://www.linesandcolors.com/2006/06/08/benoit-mandelbrot/
Born 1924 and passed away recently, he was just shy of his 86th birthday.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/rip_benoit_mandelbrot_1924-2010.html
May his soul rest in perfect peace.

EVERYONE LIKES A LITTLE MONEY, EVEN IF IT’S SOME FORMULA.

I know it’s a truism: everyone likes money even if some sage tells you not to be greedy for acquiring it. Money solves so many problems. Lots, I must say. Without money, we’d be doing trade by barter – one pair of your trousers for half olodo of my garri? Whoever thought of the idea of cowrie shells and money did solve mankind lots of problems.
I was thinking about money and wondering if maths ever had anything related to money? Sure it does, I bet you.
Of all the four basic qualities of money, I think the maths you get to learn or enjoy or ask someone to do for you, has just three. So I call it the quasimoney property of mathematics.
They are: 1. It can serve as a means for payment of debts. 2. It can serve as a store of value. 3. It can serve as a unit of account between mathematicians themselves.
Payment of debts: although I’d rather not recall the barter era, but sometimes we do give maths lessons to some kids in order to offset some debts, not so? Like helping out a friend in a school because you owe him some money with some hours teaching students maths? I know some courts recommend maths lectures as a form of community service for payment of reparations. So, do not despair, your maths can help you in good stead.
But that is not too strong enough to give it money status. Quasimoney, you can agree.
Store of value: The maths you learnt and was acquainted with in high school or college will never leave you; it’s some knowledge that you’ll have for the rest of your life. Recently, while teaching some students maths, I drew from my twelve years old knowledge of maths. So, never despair; whatever you have is for life.
Unit of account: this is the last of the quasimoney qualities. Every mathematician can judge his knowledge against other mathematicians and against the problems he/she is able to solve. Sometimes, this ability is written out on paper in form of certificates, degrees etc. So, whatever maths you have can be quantified and qualified.
Maths is quasimoney. Believe me, don’t throw that knowledge away, even if you just need elementary algebra for your everyday work or the ability to do fundamental calculus. It can put some money, real money, in your bank account.

TWO HIDDEN QUALITIES I DISCOVERED IN HIGH SCHOOL MATHS

Have you seen a good student in maths? Then, you’ve seen a bright, sharp eyed, well dressed and admirable personality. Indeed, students, I have noticed, who do well in maths, tend to on the average turn our with better personalities than others.
I have noticed that high school students who do well in maths have two admirable qualities I cherish: obedience and loyalty.
Obedience: Maths, at the high school level, is a subject of conventions and practices. It still is in even other levels. You get to learn the formula and use that formula for every and similar problems. Sometimes, if you have to learn a proof, you don’t have to trouble your head deriving it from scratch – just follow the textbook’s method.
Ever wondered why pi is the value 3.142 when the value can run into so many decimal places? Because that is what you are told it is in high school maths. Because somebody said the angles of a triangle sum up to 180 degrees and you have to accept it like that and you accept it! You see what obedience is! High school students good in maths carry this quality into their advanced years and they get to reap a lot of benefits from it.
Loyalty: or the act of fidelity; being faithful to someone, something or what you believe in. I have also noticed that high school students who are good in maths are loyal or faithful to what they believe in. Most of them tend to be leaders in youth clubs like the Junior Engineers, Technologists and Scientists (JETS) clubs, literary societies, maths clubs etc. They carry this trait into their further years. And unfortunately, in Nigeria, where there is a lack of educational and career counseling, they tend to populate the science classes.
Maths is a subject of faithfulness. If you want to solve a simultaneous equation, you have to stick to the method which is prescribed, whether using a graph, a matrix formula or deriving it by substitution and mathematical operations. 1 plus 1 is always 2 anywhere and everywhere in the world and you don’t have to bother why it is like that because that is the way it is calculated in maths; just believe that is so.
I have learnt a lot from teaching high school students maths. Really a lot.