My name is Mitch Haeuser, and I am an entering graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics at Iowa State University. I hope to document my journey through graduate school, and I also plan to share beautiful mathematics along the way.
The title of this blog was inspired by a quote attributed to Albert Einstein.
Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.
Many mathematicians that I have talked to seem to agree that there is an inherent beauty to studying mathematics, and I find math beautiful in my own way. Some argue that math is beautiful for its physical uses. In fact, we can describe the world around us pretty damn well by using mathematics. Math is used in physics, engineering, accounting, biology, etc. The beauty is that you can find traces of math nearly anywhere you look. Some argue that math is beautiful for its abstract nature. We can weave logical ideas (with no tie to reality in mind) together that result in rich theories. There is no doubt that such practices require immense creativity and imagination.
I think that the beauty in math is that it is all connected in some way. Math is like an interwoven fabric: one thread may be far from another, but there is still some way to travel in between. The more math that I studied in my undergrad, the more connections I made between seemingly separate subjects, and I know that I will continue to make these connections as I study more.
The quote is sourced from a letter that Einstein wrote to the late Emmy Noether: https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/EinsteinNYTLetter.pdf.
Logical Poetry 