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org/wiki/Pure_mathematics

Pure mathematics
Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts
independently of any application outside mathematics.
These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and
the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for
practical applications, but pure mathematicians are not
primarily motivated by such applications. Instead, the
appeal is attributed to the intellectual challenge and
aesthetic beauty of working out the logical consequences of
basic principles.

While pure mathematics has existed as an activity since at

least ancient Greece, the concept was elaborated upon
around the year 1900,[2] after the introduction of theories
with counter-intuitive properties (such as non-Euclidean
geometries and Cantor's theory of infinite sets), and the Pure mathematics studies the properties
discovery of apparent paradoxes (such as continuous and structure of abstract objects,[1] such
functions that are nowhere differentiable, and Russell's as the E8 group, in group theory. This
paradox). This introduced the need to renew the concept of may be done without focusing on
mathematical rigor and rewrite all mathematics concrete applications of the concepts in
accordingly, with a systematic use of axiomatic methods. the physical world.
This led many mathematicians to focus on mathematics for
its own sake, that is, pure mathematics.

Nevertheless, almost all mathematical theories remained motivated by problems coming from the
real world or from less abstract mathematical theories. Also, many mathematical theories, which
had seemed to be totally pure mathematics, were eventually used in applied areas, mainly physics
and computer science. A famous early example is Isaac Newton's demonstration that his law of
universal gravitation implied that planets move in orbits that are conic sections, geometrical curves
that had been studied in antiquity by Apollonius. Another example is the problem of factoring large
integers, which is the basis of the RSA cryptosystem, widely used to secure internet
communications.[3]

It follows that, presently, the distinction between pure and applied mathematics is more a
philosophical point of view or a mathematician's preference rather than a rigid subdivision of
mathematics. In particular, it is not uncommon that some members of a department of applied
mathematics describe themselves as pure mathematicians.

History

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek mathematicians were among the earliest to make a distinction between pure and

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applied mathematics. Plato helped to create the gap between "arithmetic", now called number
theory, and "logistic", now called arithmetic. Plato regarded logistic (arithmetic) as appropriate for
businessmen and men of war who "must learn the art of numbers or [they] will not know how to
array [their] troops" and arithmetic (number theory) as appropriate for philosophers "because
[they have] to arise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being."[4] Euclid of Alexandria,
when asked by one of his students of what use was the study of geometry, asked his slave to give
the student threepence, "since he must make gain of what he learns."[5] The Greek mathematician
Apollonius of Perga was asked about the usefulness of some of his theorems in Book IV of Conics to
which he proudly asserted,[6]

They are worthy of acceptance for the sake of the demonstrations themselves, in the
same way as we accept many other things in mathematics for this and for no other
reason.

And since many of his results were not applicable to the science or engineering of his day,
Apollonius further argued in the preface of the fifth book of Conics that the subject is one of those
that "...seem worthy of study for their own sake."[6]

19th century

The term itself is enshrined in the full title of the Sadleirian Chair, "Sadleirian Professor of Pure
Mathematics", founded (as a professorship) in the mid-nineteenth century. The idea of a separate
discipline of pure mathematics may have emerged at that time. The generation of Gauss made no
sweeping distinction of the kind, between pure and applied. In the following years, specialisation
and professionalisation (particularly in the Weierstrass approach to mathematical analysis) started
to make a rift more apparent.

20th century

At the start of the twentieth century mathematicians took up the axiomatic method, strongly
influenced by David Hilbert's example. The logical formulation of pure mathematics suggested by
Bertrand Russell in terms of a quantifier structure of propositions seemed more and more
plausible, as large parts of mathematics became axiomatised and thus subject to the simple criteria
of rigorous proof.

Pure mathematics, according to a view that can be ascribed to the Bourbaki group, is what is
proved. "Pure mathematician" became a recognized vocation, achievable through training.

The case was made that pure mathematics is useful in engineering education:[7]

There is a training in habits of thought, points of view, and intellectual comprehension of

ordinary engineering problems, which only the study of higher mathematics can give.

Generality and abstraction

One central concept in pure mathematics is the idea of generality; pure mathematics often exhibits

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a trend towards increased generality. Uses

and advantages of generality include the
following:

▪ Generalizing theorems or mathematical

structures can lead to deeper An illustration of the Banach–Tarski paradox, a famous
understanding of the original theorems or result in pure mathematics. Although it is proven that it is
structures possible to convert one sphere into two using nothing but
cuts and rotations, the transformation involves objects that
▪ Generality can simplify the presentation
cannot exist in the physical world.
of material, resulting in shorter proofs or
arguments that are easier to follow.
▪ One can use generality to avoid duplication of effort, proving a general result instead of having
to prove separate cases independently, or using results from other areas of mathematics.
▪ Generality can facilitate connections between different branches of mathematics. Category
theory is one area of mathematics dedicated to exploring this commonality of structure as it
plays out in some areas of math.

Generality's impact on intuition is both dependent on the subject and a matter of personal
preference or learning style. Often generality is seen as a hindrance to intuition, although it can
certainly function as an aid to it, especially when it provides analogies to material for which one
already has good intuition.

As a prime example of generality, the Erlangen program involved an expansion of geometry to

accommodate non-Euclidean geometries as well as the field of topology, and other forms of
geometry, by viewing geometry as the study of a space together with a group of transformations.
The study of numbers, called algebra at the beginning undergraduate level, extends to abstract
algebra at a more advanced level; and the study of functions, called calculus at the college
freshman level becomes mathematical analysis and functional analysis at a more advanced level.
Each of these branches of more abstract mathematics have many sub-specialties, and there are in
fact many connections between pure mathematics and applied mathematics disciplines. A steep
rise in abstraction was seen mid 20th century.

In practice, however, these developments led to a sharp divergence from physics, particularly from
1950 to 1983. Later this was criticised, for example by Vladimir Arnold, as too much Hilbert, not
enough Poincaré. The point does not yet seem to be settled, in that string theory pulls one way,
while discrete mathematics pulls back towards proof as central.

Pure vs. applied mathematics

Mathematicians have always had differing opinions regarding the distinction between pure and
applied mathematics. One of the most famous (but perhaps misunderstood) modern examples of
this debate can be found in G.H. Hardy's 1940 essay A Mathematician's Apology.

It is widely believed that Hardy considered applied mathematics to be ugly and dull. Although it is
true that Hardy preferred pure mathematics, which he often compared to painting and poetry,
Hardy saw the distinction between pure and applied mathematics to be simply that applied
mathematics sought to express physical truth in a mathematical framework, whereas pure
mathematics expressed truths that were independent of the physical world. Hardy made a separate
distinction in mathematics between what he called "real" mathematics, "which has permanent

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aesthetic value", and "the dull and elementary parts of mathematics" that have practical use.

Hardy considered some physicists, such as Einstein and Dirac, to be among the "real"
mathematicians, but at the time that he was writing his Apology, he considered general relativity
and quantum mechanics to be "useless", which allowed him to hold the opinion that only "dull"
mathematics was useful. Moreover, Hardy briefly admitted that—just as the application of matrix
theory and group theory to physics had come unexpectedly—the time may come where some kinds
of beautiful, "real" mathematics may be useful as well.

Another insightful view is offered by American mathematician Andy Magid:

I've always thought that a good model here could be drawn from ring theory. In that
subject, one has the subareas of commutative ring theory and non-commutative ring
theory. An uninformed observer might think that these represent a dichotomy, but in
fact the latter subsumes the former: a non-commutative ring is a not-necessarily-
commutative ring. If we use similar conventions, then we could refer to applied
mathematics and nonapplied mathematics, where by the latter we mean not-
necessarily-applied mathematics... [emphasis added][8]

Friedrich Engels argued in his 1878 book Anti-Dühring that "it is not at all true that in pure
mathematics the mind deals only with its own creations and imaginations. The concepts of number
and figure have not been invented from any source other than the world of reality".[9]: 36  He further
argued that "Before one came upon the idea of deducing the form of a cylinder from the rotation of
a rectangle about one of its sides, a number of real rectangles and cylinders, however imperfect in
form, must have been examined. Like all other sciences, mathematics arose out of the needs of
men...But, as in every department of thought, at a certain stage of development the laws, which
were abstracted from the real world, become divorced from the real world, and are set up against it
as something independent, as laws coming from outside, to which the world has to conform."[9]: 37 

See also
▪ Applied mathematics
Mathematics portal
▪ Logic
▪ Metalogic
▪ Metamathematics

References
1. "Pure Mathematics" (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/mathematical-sciences/research/pure-mathem
atics/). University of Liverpool. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
2. Piaggio, H. T. H., "Sadleirian Professors" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Sadleiri
an_Professors.html), in O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (eds.), MacTutor History of
Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
3. Robinson, Sara (June 2003). "Still Guarding Secrets after Years of Attacks, RSA Earns
Accolades for its Founders" (https://www.msri.org/people/members/sara/articles/rsa.pdf) (PDF).
SIAM News. 36 (5).

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Pure mathematics - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_mathematics

4. Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The age of Plato and Aristotle" (https://archive.org/details/historyofmath

ema00boye/page/86). A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 86
(https://archive.org/details/historyofmathema00boye/page/86). ISBN 0-471-54397-7.
5. Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "Euclid of Alexandria" (https://archive.org/details/historyofmathema00boy
e/page/101). A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 101 (https://a
rchive.org/details/historyofmathema00boye/page/101). ISBN 0-471-54397-7.
6. Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "Apollonius of Perga" (https://archive.org/details/historyofmathema00boy
e/page/152). A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 152 (https://a
rchive.org/details/historyofmathema00boye/page/152). ISBN 0-471-54397-7.
7. A. S. Hathaway (1901) "Pure mathematics for engineering students" (https://www.ams.org/jour
nals/bull/1901-07-06/S0002-9904-1901-00797-5/S0002-9904-1901-00797-5.pdf), Bulletin of
the American Mathematical Society 7(6):266–71.
8. Andy Magid (November 2005) Letter from the Editor (https://www.ams.org/notices/200510/com
mentary.pdf), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, page 1173
9. Engels, Frederick (1987). Marx Engels Collected Works (Volume 25) (English ed.). Moscow:
Progress Publishers. p. 33-133. ISBN 0-7178-0525-5.

External links
▪ What is Pure Mathematics? (https://uwaterloo.ca/pure-mathematics/about-pure-math/what-is-p
ure-math) – Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo
▪ The Principles of Mathematics (https://fair-use.org/bertrand-russell/the-principles-of-mathemati
cs/) by Bertrand Russell

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