Ivars Peterson - Collected Quotes

"To most outsiders, modern mathematics is unknown territory. Its borders are protected by dense thickets of technical terms; its landscapes are a mass of indecipherable equations and incomprehensible concepts. Few realize that the world of modern mathematics is rich with vivid images and provocative ideas."(Ivars Peterson," The Mathematical Tourist", 1988)

"In their search for patterns and logical connections, mathematicians face a vast, mysterious ocean of possibilities. Over the centuries, they have discovered an extensive archipelago of truth and beauty. Much of that accumulated knowledge is passed on to succeeding generations. Even more wonders await future explorers of deep, mathematical waters." (Ivars Peterson," Islands of Truth", 1990)

"[…] mystery is an inescapable ingredient of mathematics. Mathematics is full of unanswered questions, which far outnumber known theorems and results. It’s the nature of mathematics to pose more problems than it can solve. Indeed, mathematics itself may be built on small islands of truth comprising the pieces of mathematics that can be validated by relatively short proofs. All else is speculation." (Ivars Peterson," Islands of Truth", 1990)

"The voyage of discovery into our own solar system has taken us from clockwork precision into chaos and complexity. This still unfinished journey has not been easy, characterized as it is by twists, turns, and surprises that mirror the intricacies of the human mind at work on a profound puzzle. Much remains a mystery. We have found chaos, but what it means and what its relevance is to our place in the universe remains shrouded in a seemingly impenetrable cloak of mathematical uncertainty." (Ivars Peterson,"Newton’s Clock" , 1993)

"We have found chaos, but what it means and what its relevance is to our place in the universe remains shrouded in a seemingly impenetrable cloak of mathematical uncertainty." (Ivars Peterson, "Newton’s Clock" , 1993)

"Often, we use the word random loosely to describe something that is disordered, irregular, patternless, or unpredictable. We link it with chance, probability, luck, and coincidence. However, when we examine what we mean by random in various contexts, ambiguities and uncertainties inevitably arise. Tackling the subtleties of randomness allows us to go to the root of what we can understand of the universe we inhabit and helps us to define the limits of what we can know with certainty." (Ivars Peterson, "The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari", 1998) 

"Randomness, chaos, uncertainty, and chance are all a part of our lives. They reside at the ill-defined boundaries between what we know, what we can know, and what is beyond our knowing. They make life interesting." (Ivars Peterson, "The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari" , 1998)

"Sequences of random numbers also inevitably display certain regularities. […] The trouble is, just as no real die, coin, or roulette wheel is ever likely to be perfectly fair, no numerical recipe produces truly random numbers. The mere existence of a formula suggests some sort of predictability or pattern." (Ivars Peterson, "The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari", 1998)

"We use mathematics and statistics to describe the diverse realms of randomness. From these descriptions, we attempt to glean insights into the workings of chance and to search for hidden causes. With such tools in hand, we seek patterns and relationships and propose predictions that help us make sense of the world." (Ivars Peterson,"The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari", 1998)