A Mathematician Asks ‘Is Math Real?’
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IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow.The concept of math has been around for a long time. You know that. 3,000 years ago, the Egyptians were using fractions. Geometry was used in ancient Greece. And negative numbers were invented in China around 200 B.C.I’ve always found it fascinating that different cultures developed mathematics, and ultimately that knowledge was shared with the rest of the world. But you know what. There’s an underlying question to all of this. If math is largely made up of abstract concepts, how do we know that it’s real? I mean, what does “real” mean anyway?My next guest wrote a whole book grappling with this question, and she’s here with us now. Dr. Eugenia Cheng, mathematician and author of, Is Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths. She’s joining me now from Chicago.Welcome back to Science Friday.EUGENIA CHENG: Thank you so much. It’s great to be back.IRA FLATOW: That’s a weird question to ask, “Is math real? Why d...