Abstract / Synopsis
Mathematicians speak of constants of mathematics. Some of these constants are known to high-heavens. Some remain hidden in the obscurity of erudition. And to be frank, while every real number is a mathematical constant, we don’t know much about most of them (is not the set of transcendental numbers incommensurable without us knowing or understanding very many of them?).
So what elevates some constants above others? Is this elevation just a measure of the ignorance of mathematicians who have explored but a small patch of an infinite quilt, a case of six wise men trumpeting the – well, the trumpet - of a vast elephant because that was the easiest piece in hand? And what about the inconstancy of the mathematical thought itself, down historical ages? What does Godel have to say about this shifting, inconsistent belief in mathematics? And how might we transcend that great logician’s mathematical injunctions?
DOI
10.5642/jhummath.ASMJ5297
Recommended Citation
Vijay Fafat, "Constanto Mysterium - A Paradise of Shifting Constants," Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 15 Issue 1 (January 2025), pages 385-453. DOI: 10.5642/jhummath.ASMJ5297. Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol15/iss1/28
