Steven Strogatz
Steven Strogatz
Steven Henry Strogatzis an American mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He is known for his work on non-linear systems, including contributions to the study of synchronization in dynamical systems, for his research in a variety of areas of applied mathematics, including mathematical biology and complex network theory, and for his outreach work in the public communication of mathematics. He has an Erdős–Bacon number of 4...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth13 August 1959
CountryUnited States of America
That's the phenomenon. Why did they all start moving in step? They did it unconsciously. That is what nobody had thought about and engineers did not anticipate.
The phenomenon was that people who were walking at random, at their own favorite speed, not organized in any way, spontaneously synchronized, ... That's the phenomenon. Why did they all start moving in step? They did it unconsciously. That is what nobody had thought about and engineers did not anticipate.
The frequencies of the notes in a scale—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do—sound to us like they’re rising in equal steps. But objectively their vibrational frequencies are rising by equal multiples. We perceive pitch logarithmically.
When you create something new, you're breaking tradition - which is an act of defiance.
One of the pleasures of looking at the world through mathematical eyes is that you can see certain patterns that would otherwise be hidden.
You can get a certain amount of pleasure as a mathematical spectator, reading and watching some of the most beautiful arguments that have been created in the history of humanity. But that's too passive.