MEANING OF MATHEMATICS

ü “Mathematics is the Science of number and space”

ü  “Mathematics is Science of measurement, quantity and magnitude”.

ü  Mathematics is taken as a chest filed up with so many valuable tools concerning with the operations like measuring, weighing, counting etc. and helps in proper understanding ofthe nature’s work and complicated problems of life by converting them into its language of signs and symbols.

Mathematics is a pivot of all civilizations. Mathematics is that subject which indisputably forms the very basis of entire world commercial system. Mathematics is fascinating because of its opportunities for creation and discovery as well as for its utility. It is basic to the understanding of every science. It enters every walk of life. Therefore, in schools much impetus is given to the study of mathematics. It is established that permanence in mathematics is attributed to the intelligence of an individual.

DEFINITION OF MATHEMATICS

ü Mathematics is a Science of number and space.

ü Mathematics has its own language – Sings, symbols, termsand operations etc.

ü Mathematics involves man’s high cognitive Powers.

ü Mathematics has own tools like intuition, logic, reasoning,analysis, construction, generality and individuality etc.

ü Mathematics helps in drawing conclusions and interpreting various ideas and themes.

ü Mathematics is the tool especially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of and kind.

ü  It helps in solving the problems of our and disclosing the realm of nature.

Aristotle - The science of quantity. In Aristotle's classification of the sciences, discrete quantities were studied by arithmetic, continuous quantities by geometry.

Benjamin Peirce –“Mathematics is the science that draws necessary conclusions^”

Bertrand Russell –“All Mathematics is Symbolic Logic”.

Oxford English Dictionary –“The abstract science which investigates deductively the conclusions implicit in the elementary conceptions of spatial and numerical relations, and which includes as its main divisions geometry, arithmetic, and algebra”.

American Heritage Dictionary  -“The study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets, using numbers and symbols”.

Encyclopaedia Britannica-“The science of structure, order, and relation that has evolved from elemental practices of counting, measuring, and describing the shapes of objects”.

Galileo Galilee - “The universe cannot be read until we have learned the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written”. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word. Without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.

Carl Friedrich Gauss  - "The Queen of the Sciences"

Benjamin Peirce   - “The science that draws necessary conclusions".

Albert Einstein  - "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."