Back to WMY2000 summary
by Vagn
Lundsgaard Hansen, chair of EMS--committee on WMY 2000
Raising Public
Awareness of Mathematics (RPAMaths) is probably the most important goal
originally set for the World Mathematical Year 2000. And there are good reasons
for that.
The role of
mathematics in society is subtle and not generally recognized in the needs of
people in everyday life and most often it remains totally hidden in scientific
and technological advancements. The old saying ``The one who lives hidden lives
best" is not true in present day society. If a subject becomes invisible,
it may soon be forgotten and eventually it may even disappear.
Mathematics has a
prominent place in school curricula all over the world and probably nobody can imagine
such a fate for our subject. But if we do not constantly care about the image
of mathematics, we will see continuing pressures to lower the amount of
mathematics at primary schools, secondary schools and at the university level. Mathematics
is exciting to many people but at the same time is considered difficult and
somewhat inaccessible by more. Since mathematics is a fundamental cornerstone
in several diverse areas of society, it is important for civilization as a
whole that mathematicians do their utmost to help explaining and clarifying the
role of mathematics.
In the back of
their minds most people find that mathematics is important, but they may have
forgotten why. We have to find ways of informing them. Displaying posters with
mathematical messages at public places, making videos, producing booklets,
arranging exhibitions and activities related to mathematics, in particular to
the contents of the posters, can prove to be very effective in such an
endeavour.
Indeed we hope
so. On March 3--5, 2000 the European Mathematical Society organized a meeting
in Paris between the partners in a contract with the European Commission under
the program Raising Public Awareness of Science and Technology, where such
things were on the agenda. There are two other partners in the contract, a team
in Paris under direction of professor Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel and a team in
Bangor, UK, under direction of professor Ronnie Brown. The main impact of the
coordinated campaign resulting from the contract should be obtained during the
European Science and Technology Week, November 6--12, 2000, but much of the
material prepared for the campaign will undoubtedly be useful in many other
contexts for years to come.
In the spring of
1999, the European Mathematical Society arranged a competition to encourage the
idea of creating posters with a mathematical theme that would catch the eye and
be representative of mathematics and its uses. The posters submitted for the
competition are now included in a web-gallery: http://www.mat.dtu.dk/ems-gallery
.
Several of the
posters from the competition have already been used, or will be used, in
various contexts. At the moment, I know of such uses of ideas in the posters
from the competition in Canada, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain and
Denmark.
The posters from
the EMS-competition and several other posters were presented and discussed
intensely during the meeting. By the end of the meeting a brainstorm was
conducted to bring forward even more ideas.
The Paris team is
responsible for the final selection and production of the posters to be used
during the European Science and Technology Week. I am confident that the team
shall produce some graphically attractive and mathematically interesting
posters to the general public. Electronic files of the posters will be made
available for use in appropriate contexts.
The production of
CD-roms and Video clips was presented by Ronnie Brown from the Bangor team,
which is responsible for this part of the contract on RPAMaths. He was assisted
by Mike Yates, who is the owner of the company SUMit Software, which will be
doing the detailed work on the CD-roms. The progress can be followed on the web
site for the project: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ma/CPM/rpamath . Feedback is encouraged to improve the
final result.
The experiences
of the Bangor team gained in connection with their 1989 Exhibition `Mathematics
and Knots' and the subsequent web site
building on sculptures and on knots in 1996-7 (links from the above rpamath
site) are most valuable and makes me confident that the part of the RPAMaths
project on CD-rom and Video clips will
be successful. Also these products will be made available for appropriate uses.
To explain the
contents of the posters, CD-roms and Video clips, small booklets will be
produced and made available at relevant places.
The EMS-committee
of the WMY 2000 is also interested in collecting knowledge of articles about
mathematics appearing in major national newspapers in different countries;
hopefully such articles can be translated into several languages and be of use
in other countries. Material can be sent to me on the address mentioned below.
The RPAMaths
project as a whole relies on considerable efforts of individuals in several
European countries taking time out of their usual positions to work for this
project. The contract with the European Commission is very much appreaciated as
a means to get all this working, but clearly it covers only a modest part of
the campaign compared to the collected efforts made by individual members of
the mathematical community. We are greatly indepted to everybody working on
making the World Mathematical Year 2000 a successful year.
Professor Vagn
Lundsgaard Hansen Department of Mathematics Technical University of Denmark Building
303 Dk-2800 Kongens Lyngby Denmark V.L.Hansen@mat.dtu.dk
Ronnie Brown and
Mike Yates attended from Bangor. We both found the meeting very stimulating in
meeting people, and in seeing the current achievements and future plans of our
partners.
Mike's company SUMit
Software is subcontractor to the project at Bangor, and will be doing the
detailed work on the CDRoms, for which there has been considerable discussion
on planning. Mike is an Honorary Professor at Bangor, and also Professor
Emeritus at Manchester University, where he was Professor of Mathematical Logic
till 1980. He now has ten years experience in educational software, part of it
working with a strong multimedia company in Liverpool.
Mike has already
redeveloped the web site for the project (http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ma/CPM/rpamath).
Contributions to this, and comments, are welcomed, especially those which show
the broad nature of the collaborations on this project. The web site is important
for showing what is being done. Suggestions, comments, files, links,... should
be sent to myates@sumit.demon.co.uk.
Ronnie Brown gave a computer presentation explaining the methodological principles underlying the construction of the 1989 Exhibition `Mathematics and Knots' by the Bangor team R. Brown, N.D. Gilbert, T. Porter. These principles were in two parts: (i) structure, and (ii) content.
(i)Structure:
The exhibition was designed to be reproducible, transportable, not
requiring management and supervision. We were fortunate to have excellent
graphic design advice over the design period of four years to attain these
ends.
(ii)Content: This we feel was the most original
part. The title should really be `Mathematics through Knots', since the aim was
to explain some basic methods of mathematics to the general public. Thus part
of the intention was to show mathematics as valuable in itself, and to show how
the pursuit of these methods and aims led to applications which could not be
seen from the start.
We also came to
realise that the exhibition format is one of the hardest. It is not enough to
show things, or ideas; there has to be an overlying philosophy, an intention on the impression that is to be conveyed to the viewer, and each
aspect of the exhibition has to fit with that intention. Each board has to tell
a story in itself, as far as possible by graphical means, and yet each board has
to be related to the others.
It should now be
clear why the development and realisation of this structure took four years!
The methods which
were displayed through knots were: representation; classification; invariants;
breaking a complicated object or procedure into simple parts; laws; analogy; applications.
Part of the
overall aims were: advanced mathematics from an elementary viewpoint; making
mathematics concrete.
Putting the
exhibition on the web in 1997 allowed the description of these aims, and much
other material, to be incorporated into various levels of the hypertext,
keeping the original boards at the top level. Thus the web format turns out to
be a wonderful and flexible tool.
An unforeseen
consequence of making the exhibition was the collaboration with the sculptor
John Robinson, and the web sites of his sculptures and the knot exhibition are
expected to form a core of the CDROm(s) in preparation for the RPAMath project.
Acknowledgements: The main support for the original
exhibition came from COPUS (Committee for the Public Understanding of Science),
and for the web presentation from the Philip Trust and the London Mathematical
Society.