It is truly designed to appeal to the general public, and so can be appreciated in many ways by people from the ages of 8 to 80 (or more). It also gives direct visualisations of some advanced concepts, such as the projective plane, and fibre bundles. For this reason it will be a useful extra even for University courses on Topology. Presentations of the CDRom and of parts of it have been given to the general public and to professional scientists and mathematicians.
The CDRom presents a linked account of knots, mathematics and John Robinson's Symbolic Sculptures. One aim is to show not just that mathematics has applications in the real world, but to try to explain to the general public some of the methods which lead to these applications. So the knot exhibition in the CD illustrates methods such as representation, classification, invariants, breaking a complex process or object into small standard parts, laws, analogy, and applications. Thus the applications have to come after the development of the basic mathematical methods, though the two are sometimes developed concurrently.
We were very fortunate in being able to incorporate some 23 splendid animations of Symbolic Sculptures originally commissioned from Nick Mee of Virtual Image by Edition Limitée of Geneva.
Many of the sculptures are linked to the theme of knots, and others symbolise mathematical, scientific and human themes. Thus we show a rare linking of science and modern art. A further aim of the CD is to appeal to sensibility and the imagination - without this appeal, many gifted people will fail to see a reason to study mathematics apart from purely utilitarian motives.
But here we give an Introduction by Vagn Lundsgaard Hansen to a fundamental aim of this CDRom:
Raising Public Awareness of Mathematics is probably the most important goal originally set for the World Mathematical Year 2000. And there are good reasons for that.
The role of mathematics in society is subtle and not generally recognized in the needs of people in everyday life and most often it remains totally hidden in scientific and technological advancements. The old saying "The one who lives hidden lives best" is not true in present day society. If a subject becomes invisible, it may soon be forgotten and eventually it may even disappear. Mathematics has such a prominent place in school curricula all over the world that probably nobody can imagine such a fate for this subject. But if we do not constantly care about the image of mathematics, we will see continuing pressures to lower the amount of mathematics at primary schools, secondary schools and at the university level. Mathematics is exciting to many people but at the same time is considered difficult and somewhat inaccessible by many more. Since mathematics is the fundamental cornerstone in many diverse areas of society, it is important for civilization as a whole that mathematicians do their utmost to help explaining and clarifying the role of mathematics.
This is but one of a range of activities all over the world which follow this aim.
Vagn Lundsgaard Hansen
June, 2000