The video I chose to examine for this discussion is Roger Antonsen’s TED talk, “Math is the hidden secret to understanding the world”. It talks about the use of maths in developing important life skills. The speaker views the field not as an occupation or a study subject but instead as a lens through which people can look at the world. The video discusses mathematics as a general framework for interacting with the environment and positions it as extremely important for one’s daily life. The speaker highlights some of math’s capabilities for a regular individual, such as its ability to promote pattern-seeing behaviors and communication (Antonsen, 2016). Patterns are present in most avenues of society, so seeing, remembering, and understanding them helps one become more efficient. Similarly, using patterns in math can illustrate other concepts or create interesting visual phenomena (Antonsen, 2016). The speaker also discusses mathematics’ ability to represent various concepts, shapes, words, and the various concepts of meaning that can be coded through mathematical language and understood by others (Antonsen, 2016). The process of transformation is beautiful, fascinating and practical, giving people the capacity to share knowledge.
Another important idea the speaker touches upon is that math develops a sense of perspective. By displaying the same information in a variety of forms, mathematics can make a person think more critically about the way they see the world. To demonstrate this idea, he represents 4/3 using numbers, dots, imagery, and sound (Antonsen, 2016). All of the above methods are used to show the same idea, but their appearance shifts drastically. Lastly, the discussion touches upon math’s capability to make a person more empathetic to others. The presenter claims that to understand something, a person needs to view it from different perspectives (Antonsen, 2016). Therefore, math, as a tool for providing varied perspective, is one of the best concepts to promote connection with people.
Reference
Antonsen, R. (2016). Math is the hidden secret to understanding the world | Roger Antonsen [Video]. YouTube.