Math: is it an art, or a science?

[renaissance12]

Mathematic is not difficult... the explanations are difficult..

[Gold-Shekel]

It's science since it has to always be correct, it would be art if 1+1=7 made sense but it doesn't.

[renaissance12]

The cultural, intellectual and artistic movement of the Renaissance, which saw a resurgence of learning based on classical sources ( Romans and Greek ), began in Italy around the 14th Century, and gradually spread across most of Europe over the next 3 centuries. Science and art were still very much interconnected and intermingled at this time, as exemplified by the work of artist/scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Piero della Francesca( some of the best mathematicians in their time ), and it is no surprise that, just as in art, revolutionary work in the fields of philosophy and science was soon taking place.
In the Renaissance Italy of the early 16th Century, Bologna University in particular was famed for its intense public mathematics competitions.
It was in just such a competion that the unlikely figure of the young, self-taught Tartaglia Nicolò revealed to the world the formula for solving first one type, and later all types, of cubic equations (equations with terms including x3), an achievement hitherto considered impossible and which had stumped the best mathematicians of China, India and Islamic world.


Italian renaissance mathematicians such as Gerolamo Cardano ( inventor of probabilistic calculus and complex numbers, discovery of cubic formula equations together with Tartaglia ) Raphael Bombelli, Del Ferro, were responsible for the most important developments in algebra since Babylonians ( Indians invented decimal number but their "algebra" was, in some way, inferior to Archimedes's mathematics.. ..who was able to find the formula of parabolic area using Romans number ).


With Hindu-Arabic numerals, standardized notation and the new language of algebra at their disposal, the stage was set for the European mathematical revolution of the 17th Century in Italy France England and Germany....and later in Switzerland..

[Annie999]

Until I met my fiance who is a PhD scientist, I would have answered math is just a science. Now he's made me see math can ALSO be art. You might wonder how? There are many ways to solve and prove things, and you can do it with so much grace that it becomes an art . I thought that was not possible but he's show me many examples and even me who hates math saw it.

[renaissance12]

Piero della Francesca