Why study mathematics? I am sure that a number of children have asked this question to themselves and to their parents. It won't be an understatement if I were to say that mathematics is the language of the Universe. Mathematics not only helps us get by in the day-to-day world of mundane transactions, but also helps us to comprehend the world around us. Almost all scientific and technological leaps that humans have made in the short history of mankind happened once the quantities, amounts, shapes and distances in the physical world around us were packaged into the distinct disciplines of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus etc. Mathematics is the foundation of engineering, of business management, and in research for new matter and materials. What's more, it has some application even in music.

Is mathematics complex and difficult? Difficulty in comprehending numbers at initial stages emerges from the perceived abstraction of numbers. However the statement made by an eminent English mathematician Godfrey Harold Hardy in the early part of 20th century should put to rest the anxiety encountered in grappling with numbers. He stated that:

"The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics."

It is this beautiful articulation of the mathematician's world that is the essence of our Numerical Theater book, and forms the foundation of our Numerical Theater workshop.