This a an old poem I was reminded of recently because of this fascinating insight in maths from Mathematician Vicky Neale and BBC Radio 4. You can listen to it here. I remember reading about Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell and his maths based investigations into the substance of Saturn’s rings. For the first time I truly became excited by maths.

Maths is beautiful
Discuss

Well I'm more into words
But if I must
Maths is the most beautiful language
The Universe writes with it
Creates things truly incredible
And delights with it

And most beautifully
We can understand
What the universe writes
As our appreciation of
This glorious place
It only expands

Maths is the whisper
That hids behind music
The light with which
Scientific minds search
The structure behind that building
On which the pigeon does perch

That is my point and here is my example
In the 1800s James Clerk Maxwell
That dear Scottish physicist
Was tasked with
Discovering by what substance
Saturn's rings did exist

He didn't use a telescope
Couldn't get any samples
He sat down and busted out
Some equations
And he was right!
What a hero, what an example!

What a way to explain
I mean
The man was a genius
What a brain!
All thanks to maths
How beautiful is that!

Dave James Horn ©

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