“There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numerals, and those who don't.” — Ian Stewart Binary Copy Share Image
If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be so simple that we couldn't. — Ian Stewart Brain Copy Share Image
Our teaching of mathematics revolves around a fundamental conflict. Rightly or wrongly, students are required to master a series of mathematical concepts… — Ian Stewart Concepts Copy Share Image
Mathematics is the science of patterns, and nature exploits just about every pattern that there is. — Ian Stewart Exploits Copy Share Image
Two centuries ago Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians and a founder of number theory, described his brainchild as "the… — Ian Stewart Aesthetic Copy Share Image
“Only three constants are significant for star formation: the gravitational constant, the fine structure constant, and a constant that governs nuclear reaction… — Ian Stewart Cosmology Copy Share Image
Religion hinges upon faith, politics hinges upon who can tell the most convincing lies or maybe just shout the loudest, but science… — Ian Stewart Faith Copy Share Image
During the past fifty years, more mathematics has been created than in all previous ages put together. — Ian Stewart Age Copy Share Image
The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of… — Ian Stewart Atheism Copy Share Image
One of the biggest problems of mathematics is to explain to everyone else what it is all about. The technical trappings of… — Ian Stewart Art Copy Share Image
To criticize mathematics for its abstraction is to miss the point entirely. Abstraction is what makes mathematics work. If you concentrate too… — Ian Stewart Abstraction Copy Share Image
I don't want to convince you that mathematics is useful. It is, but utility is not the only criterion for value to… — Ian Stewart Agency Copy Share Image
Mathematicians are beginning to view order and chaos as two distinct manifestations of an underlying determinism. And neither state exists in isolation.… — Ian Stewart Aesthetic Copy Share Image
Mathematicians need proofs to keep them honest. All technical areas of human activity need reality checks. It is not enough to believe… — Ian Stewart Activity Copy Share Image
The power of equations lies in the philosophically difficult correspondence between mathematics, a collective creation of human minds, and an external physical… — Ian Stewart Collectives Copy Share Image
...a major triumph of mathematical imagination: the use of visual imagery to condense a large quantity of information into a single comprehensible… — Ian Stewart Aesthetic Copy Share Image