In elementary, middle and high school you are never really told about professional mathematicians.  I just realized that while doing this number puzzle.  

I guess you could say that I'm a gamer, but not really.  I don't hack into games, or figure out how to make copies of them to give to all my friends, or do anything like that.  I just like to play games.  Mostly online games.  It's expensive to buy tons of board games, especially when the best ones are online.  

So I've been playing this game for a couple of weeks now.  I guess you've figured out why I haven't posted anything recently.  But I've been thinking, do people really think all mathematicians do is play with numbers all day long?  Not to say that some mathematicians don't play with numbers.  Looking for patterns can lead to some really interesting results.  But math isn't all about numbers.  

Math is so much more than just numbers.

I just don't see how other people don't see that.  I guess I'm blind to this ignorance, in a way.  My fiance has begun to see the scope of mathematics.  I mean, it's pretty obvious that a lot of theory is not possible and does not hold up if it were not for mathematics.  Many physicists and engineers study math for ages before they get to what they are supposed to do.  They are ever vigilant to not get "wrapped up" in mathematics.  I've heard this from several physics-minded people - they don't want to be wrapped up in the beauty.

Is this because there isn't as much money in mathematics as there is in engineering?  Are engineers afraid they would dwindle in numbers if there was a sudden flood of mathematicians?  

Early on in education you are told what engineers do, why not mathematicians?  

Why should we be left behind in this?  Why do people think math is so evil?  

If it weren't for math, VCRs would not have been developed and DVDs definately wouldn't be a wave of today.  Computers would not be as efficient, or even in existence.  

Mathematics branches into many fields, so why do we get flanked when it comes to credit?  

For my wedding, I passed the idea of "Math Art" as a theme to my fiance.  You should have seen it, he almost flew out of his chair.  

"What?"

"Math Art.  Wouldn't that be cool?"

"You mean like squares and circles and stuff!?!"

"No.  More like Escher.  Think tesselations and tilings."

"I'm not so sure about this."

Since then, the idea has morphed into something different.  We aren't working with tilings anymore.  Think open curves... :D

In between planning this wedding and applying for graduate school, I've had less than ample time to look at math.  I think I'm going into math withdrawal, it's horrible.  But I've been trying to keep it alive, with the mathy-ness that is.  

So I'm thinking about trying to create what I think would be an effective algorithm for this game.  I don't know if it would work, but I could at least try to write it, pass it by a prof., and see what they say.

Have you tried Sudoku?  What do you think about it?  I'm thinking about posting a story, but am unsure about the theme.  

I'm in between:
   - Sudoku, turning public interest towards being comfortable with math.
   - Sudoku, the mathematics of the puzzle
   - Sudoku, a learning tool in the classroom?  

Post Comments and tell me what you think.