Ask Dr. Silverman 10 — Mathematical Objects: Number-ology, Not Numerology
Herb Silverman is the Founder of the Secular Coalition of America, the Founder of the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, and the Founder of the Atheist/Humanist Alliance student group at the College of Charleston. Here we talk about mathematical objects in brief.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are the types of mathematical objects, e.g., functions, sets, vectors, and so on? What makes each distinct? What is there role in math?
Professor Herb Silverman: Mathematicians don’t much think about types of mathematical objects. A mathematical object can be anything that mathematicians work on, including functions, sets, vectors, numbers, points, lines, circles, ellipses, matrices, infinite series, and so on.
The various specialties of mathematics, like linear algebra, abstract algebra, topology, real analysis, complex analysis, geometry, combinatorics, and many more, can be organized by the type of mathematical objects they primarily concentrate on.
Different areas of mathematics have some objects in common. For instance, most mathematical areas deal with objects like numbers, functions, and sets.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Professor Silverman.
Photo by Kevin Crosby on Unsplash
