Thursday, August 30, 2007

 

Wesley is Bilingual

I am currently teaching a nuclear engineering course. The other day while I was glancing through my notes, I realized I was bilingual. My second language is not romantic or the primary language of any people group. However, my second language is beautiful, complex at times, universal, enlightening, often prophetic, and even has "grammar" rules. My second language is called Mathematics. Note the beauty of my second language:


To the casual observer, the above language looks like jibberish. But to me it makes logical sense. The student who is required to take a second language (and then forgets it during the summer) would read the above language in this simplistic way: "Inflow minus outflow plus generation is how much we have."


Yet, the beginner student would say the same of this "phrase" as well:


Both "phrases" have similar parts, yet different enought to carry slightly different meaning.

Many times the beauty of the language is that which is not said. For example, in the first phrase, the "three lazy s's" carry the idea of counting to infinity three times.

This second language that I am still trying to master must be a heavenly language--without fault, complete in every way.


# posted by Wesley Son of Cornelius @ 9:37 PM
Comments:
Thinker, that's a neat language. Spanish and French and Italian and Latin (and so many others) all have their very rightful place in the realm of languages. But I do not think I had ever looked at mathematics as a language itself. But of course it is. It conveys truth in a way words have trouble doing sometimes. Lazy S's and infinity and having surplus from generation. It's genius. And it is a noble language to know. I admire your fluency, and, to be honest, miss learning that beautiful language of numbers, theorems, equations, and solutions. I look forward to any further "sentences" you may post (as long as you interpret them for me, as I am a bit shaky on those lazy S's...)
Take care, and enjoy speaking (or writing) Mathmish (or would it be called Mathemese? Or Matharian?)
# posted by Blogger Daniel : 9/21/2007 9:21 PM
 
Interesting. My father was the first licensed Nuclear Engineer in the US. He left the field though and pursued a Chemcial Engineering career.

Unfortunately, he never did come to see the presence or beauty of our Lord in the language of math.

Peace -
Camille
# posted by Blogger KeepItSimple : 10/08/2008 10:39 AM
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?