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What is mathematics? It is only a systematic effort of solving puzzles posed by nature.
Shakuntala Devi
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Mathematics is a structured way of addressing the challenges and mysteries presented by the natural world.

Shakuntala Devi highlights that mathematics is not merely an abstract field, but a practical tool that helps us decode and understand the complexities of nature. By framing mathematics as a systematic effort in solving puzzles, she emphasizes its role in making sense of the world around us, thus showcasing its intrinsic connection to the natural phenomena we observe daily.

Themes

MathematicsNaturePuzzlesScienceUnderstanding

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a presentation about the importance of mathematics in science education.

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Many go through life afraid of numbers and upset by numbers. They would rather amble along through life miscounting, miscalculating and, in general, mismanaging their worldly affairs than make friends with numbers.
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Quote by Shakuntala Devi | QuoteProject