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Number Theory Quotes

Browse 7 quotes about Number Theory.

Number Theory Quotes

“If the theory of numbers could be employed for any practical and obviously honourable purpose, if it could be turned directly to the furtherance of human happiness or the relief of human suffering, as physiology and even chemistry can, then surely neither Gauss nor any other mathematician would have been so foolish as to decry or regret such applications. But science works for evil as well as for good; and both Gauss and lesser mathematicians may be justified in rejoicing that there is one science at any rate, and that their own, whose very remoteness from ordinary human activities should keep it gentle and clean.”

ScienceEvilMathematicsGoodHonorablePracticalApplicationsNumber TheoryGauss
Book:A Mathematician's Apology
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“It is shown that the golden ratio plays a prominent role in the dimensions of all objects which exhibit five-fold symmetry. It is also showed that among the irrational numbers, the golden ratio is the most irrational and, as a result, has unique applications in number theory, search algorithms, the minimization of functions, network theory, the atomic structure of certain materials and the growth of biological organisms.”

MathematicsBiologySymmetryFine Structure ConstantGolden RatioGolden MeanNumber TheoryFibonacci Sequence
Book:GOLDEN RATIO AND FIBONACCI NUMBERS, THE
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“Mathematicians call it “the arithmetic of congruences.” You can think of it as clock arithmetic. Temporarily replace the 12 on a clock face with 0. The 12 hours of the clock now read 0, 1, 2, 3, … up to 11. If the time is eight o’clock, and you add 9 hours, what do you get? Well, you get five o’clock. So in this arithmetic, 8 + 9 = 5; or, as mathematicians say, 8 + 9 ≡ 5 (mod 12), pronounced “eight plus nine is congruent to five, modulo twelve.”

MathematicsClockAlgebraCongruenceNumber TheoryCongruence ArithmeticCongruence Module
Book:Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics
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“No part of mathematics is ever, in the long run, "useless." Most of number theory has very few "practical" applications. That does not reduce its importance, and if anything it enhances its fascination. No one can predict when what seems to be a most obscure theorem may suddenly be called upon to play some vital and hitherto unsuspected role.”

HistoryMathematicsNumber TheoryMathematics And Poetry
Book:Excursions in Number Theory
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