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Can We Imagine Life Without Mathematics? The Answer Will Stun You

Most of us dread hearing or encountering anything that is related to math. Whether you like it or not, we do share a lifelong bond with mathematics. It is there everywhere and in everything that we do. Have you ever imagined what would life be like without mathematics? Can we even imagine life without mathematics?

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Did You Know?

The number 40, when written as ‘forty’, is the only number having letters in alphabetical order, while ‘one’ is the only number with letters in reverse order.

Mathematics is a 11-letter word, that, with the mere mention of it, triggers weird reactions and scowls from people of all ages. From the time we learned how to count, it marked our lifelong and inseparable bond with math, that we will continue to share forever. Whether one is a Math Whiz Kid or not, it is an integral part of our daily lives.

Yes, we can’t run away or hide from it! It follows us around everywhere. It all starts with counting, then come ‘x’ and ‘y’, and then Trigonometry, Integration, etc. You may feel that it makes you want to pull your hair out at times, but you have to face it everywhere.

Math is needed at every step of life, and we cannot live without it. It is a subject that is applied to every field and profession. It tells us how things work, and also allows us to predict certain things, which is how we have progressed so much in life. It has made our lives easier, and not complicated. Had it not been for math,We would still be figuring out each and everything in life, which in turn would create chaos. Still not convinced? Take a look at the section below. It might just bring you closer to it, or at least remove your fear of mathematics.

What Will Happen to the World Without Mathematics?

Try imagining a world without any numbers or math. Hard to imagine, right? Even if you try to put it into words, you still cannot describe each and every bit of it. This explains the importance of mathematics in our daily life, since numbers are the basic building blocks and foundation of mathematics.

In Daily Life

If there were no numbers, there wouldn’t exist any calendars or time. You won’t even know that it’s your own birthday, your best friend’s birthday, or your dog’s birthday, since all the days in your life will be same. You wouldn’t know what year it is. How will you know that it’s time for your favorite show? And how will you know what channel your favorite show is coming on?

In the Store

Imagine that you go to a store and want to buy the latest version of your favorite video game. But since we are living in a world sans math, how will you know how much it costs? You wouldn’t know how many apples or strawberries you bought from the store. If you want to buy some medicine, how will you know how strong it is, or in what quantity the ingredients are present in it?

In the House

If you want to bake your favorite cake, you won’t be able to measure the ingredients, since there are no numbers. How will you know how much is ½ teaspoon or ¾ tablespoon? Moreover, there would be no calculators to calculate your share of the contribution for pizza that you ordered. While decorating or repainting your house, you at once come to know how much paint would be required and how many tiles you need to get according to the size of a room. All of this is possible only because Mr. Algebra is there to help you out with the help of our beloved Mr. X.

In Technology

Moreover, there wouldn’t be any advancements in technology. The cell phones and high-end gadgets that you use everyday wouldn’t exist, since the mechanism and working involves complex algorithms, which are possible because of mathematics. Imagine living in a world without computers, televisions, laptops, cell phones, and even electricity. We’re sure most of you couldn’t even imagine living without all these. Mathematics has such a wide and huge application in every sphere of life, that even persons having math-phobia use it in their daily lives in some or the other way.

In Education

If there were no numbers, then there wouldn’t be any Math, Physics, or Chemistry to study. And there would be no examinations or tests, the results of which would freak you out! We can see the wide, devilish grin on your face, looking at your computer screen here! Of course, who wouldn’t love to be in a world where there would be no studying and no exams to appear for. But come to think of it, would you be so much educated and well-learned if you didn’t have math in your life at all?

Do you love sports? Well, if it wasn’t for numbers, how would you know the scores, or dimensions of the football field or basketball court? How would you have come to know how much distance you ran and how you need to cover, or how much time is left for the match to end? There would be no competitions and tournaments. Don’t you think it would get a bit boring?

In Economics

The economic sector would be hit the hardest if there wouldn’t have been any numbers in this world. There wouldn’t be any way to measure the value of goods and services. There wouldn’t be any trading, and people would often end up with either too much or too little of everything. Without a budget, you’d never realize when you run out of money.

Day-to-day transactions would be chaotic. You wouldn’t have been able to analyze market trends, which are the main elements of any business. There would be no GDP, no interests, and no shares to invest it.

In Employment

So many people in this world would be unemployed, especially the ones working in banking sectors, engineers, architects, etc. And most of all, all the math professors on this planet would be sitting at home, thinking of something else to do in life!

Had it not been for mathematics, you wouldn’t have stumbled upon this article as well! Okay, jokes apart! So now you know that life without mathematics is actually impossible and unimaginable. You just need to get your basics right, and know how to play with numbers. Hope you have fallen in love with it by now! If you haven’t, then it’s about time we accept the fact that we are destined to live with mathematics for the rest of our lives. This is how much it loves everyone. So, the best way to make peace with it would be to accept it and love it back. After all, it was made to make our lives easier, not difficult.

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Almost 400 years ago, in The Assayer , Galileo wrote: “ Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe … [But the book] is written in the language of mathematics .” He was much more than an astronomer, and this can almost be thought of as the first writing on the scientific method.

We do not know who first started applying mathematics to scientific study, but it is plausible that it was the Babylonians, who used it to discover the pattern underlying eclipses , nearly 3,000 years ago. But it took 2,500 years and the invention of calculus and Newtonian physics to explain the patterns.

Since then, probably every single major scientific discovery has used mathematics in some form, simply because it is far more powerful than any other human language. It is not surprising that this has led many people to claim that mathematics is much more : that the universe is created by a mathematician .

So could we imagine a universe in which mathematics does not work?

The language of mathematics

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis asserts that you cannot discuss a concept unless you have the language to describe it.

In any science, and physics in particular, we need to describe concepts that do not map well on to any human language. One can describe an electron, but the moment we start asking questions like “What colour is it?” we start to realize the inadequacies of English.

The colour of an object depends on the wavelengths of light reflected by it, so an electron has no colour, or more accurately, all colours. The question itself is meaningless. But ask “How does an electron behave?” and the answer is, in principle, simple. In 1928, Paul A.M. Dirac wrote down an equation that describes the behaviour of an electron almost perfectly under all circumstances. This does not mean it is simple when we look at the details.

For example, an electron behaves as a tiny magnet. The magnitude can be calculated, but the calculation is horrendously complicated . Explaining an aurora, for example, requires us to understand orbital mechanics, magnetic fields and atomic physics, but at heart, these are just more mathematics.

But it is when we think of the individual that we realize that a human commitment to logical, mathematical thinking goes much deeper. The decision to overtake a slow-moving car does not involve the explicit integration of the equations of motion, but we certainly do it implicitly. A Tesla on autopilot will actually solve them explicitly.

Predicting chaos

So we really should not be surprised that mathematics is not just a language for describing the external world, but in many ways the only one. But just because something can be described mathematically does not mean it can be predicted.

One of the more remarkable discoveries of the last 50 years has been the discovery of “ chaotic systems .” These can be apparently simple mathematical systems that cannot be solved precisely. It turns out that many systems are chaotic in this sense. Hurricane tracks in the Caribbean are superficially similar to eclipse tracks, but we cannot predict them precisely with all the power of modern computers.

However, we understand why: the equations that describe weather are intrinsically chaotic, so we can make accurate predictions in the short term, (about 24 hours), but these become increasingly unreliable over days. Similarly, quantum mechanics provides a theory where we know precisely what predictions cannot be made precisely. One can calculate the properties of an electron very accurately, but we cannot predict what an individual one will do .

Hurricanes are obviously intermittent events, and we cannot predict when one will happen in advance. But the mere fact that we cannot predict an event precisely does not mean we cannot describe it when it happens. We can even handle one-off events: it is generally accepted that the universe was created in the Big Bang and we have a remarkably precise theory of that .

Designing social systems

A whole host of social phenomena, from the stock market to revolutions , lack good predictive mathematics, but we can describe what has happened and to some extent construct model systems.

So how about personal relationships? Love may be blind, but relationships are certainly predictable. The vast majority of us choose partners inside our social class and linguistic group, so there is absolutely no doubt that is true in the statistical sense. But it is also true in the local sense. A host of dating sites make their money by algorithms that at least make some pretence at matching you to your ideal mate.

A universe that could not be described mathematically would need to be fundamentally irrational and not merely unpredictable. Just because a theory is implausible does not mean we could not describe it mathematically.

But I do not think we live in that universe, and I suspect we cannot imagine a non-mathematical universe.

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We recently took a look at how integral mathematics is to our everyday lives . It pops up everywhere, so much so that it’s easy to take it for granted. Perhaps a better way to truly appreciate the value of maths is to imagine a world where mathematics doesn’t exist. How would that landscape look?

In an effort to bring this idea to life, we’ve done some hunting around the web to see what we could find.

First, let’s imagine what it’s like to live in a world where mathematics exists for everyone except you. That’s an everyday experience for Line Rothmann, a woman who has developmental dyscalculia, which means she has difficulty understanding anything and everything math related.

Dyscalculia is a condition that is thought to affect 1 in 20 people. In this video, she shares her story and the tips and tricks she uses to get through the day.

“ A colourblind person does not explain what they see. They explain what others tell them they are unable to see, ” says Line, trying to articulate what life is like for her.

Now imagine how different our daily landscape would be if mathematics had never came to be. It would mean no time, no calendars, no buildings, no transportation, no recipes… the list goes on and on. Quite simply, all of the comforts which make our lives what they are today would be no more. This video is an interesting overview of all the things we’d have to say goodbye to, if we were to bid farewell to maths. It’s quite a sobering list!

Have you ever heard someone proudly say, “ Oh, I don’t do math ” ? There are people who resign themselves to this concept and it becomes a badge they almost wear with pride. But you would never hear people say “ Oh, I don’t read ” , like it’s a good thing. So what is it about maths that makes some people feel like they can exist without it? In this fascinating talk, Emily Calandrelli, who once worked for NASA and as the producer and host of FOX's Xploration Outer Space, discusses the importance of STEM literacy.

“ [When it comes to STEM skills], we put these skills on a pedestal, reserved for people in glasses and lab coats, ” says Emily. “ We revere people like Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, but we don’t consider them pertinent to everyday life… It’s time we threw away that mindset. ”

These are some interesting starting points for all of us to consider the importance of mathematics, and not only what it has given us throughout the ages, but also where it will take us in the future. When asked to consider a world without mathematics, no matter who you are, it would require you to give up most of the things in your life that you hold dear.

So the next time you handle money, watch the TV or drive in a car, stop to appreciate numbers, maths and what they’ve given you lately. And of course, spare a thought for maths teachers, who play a truly pivotal role in fostering a love and appreciation of maths within each new generation as they pass through the education system. Where would we be without them?

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A World Without Mathematics: Imagining the Unthinkable

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