I’m a Math PhD Who Can’t Do Basic Arithmetic — Let Me Explain

“Mathematics is the language of the universe.” — every science popularizer ever.

Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash

I am a mathematician. In fact, I have a PhD in mathematics. But I am terrible at arithmetic. Confused? I certainly would have been if a self-proclaimed mathematician told me that 20 years ago.

The answer to this riddle is simple: math is not numbers.

Whenever a glimpse of my research is seen by nearly anyone but another mathematician, they ask where the numbers are. It’s just a bunch of gibberish symbols, they say.

My whiteboard at the University of Technology Sydney.

Well, they are right. Without speaking the language, it is just gibberish. But why — why all these symbols?

The symbols are necessary because communicating the ideas requires it. A simple analogy is common human language.

Mandarin Chinese, for example, has many more like-sounding syllables than English. This has led to many visual puns, which have become a large part of Chinese culture. For example, the phrase 福到了(“fortune has arrived”) sounds the same as 福倒了(“fortune is upside down”). Often, you will…