Maths and the Law

When I was at school the one thing that I really hated having to do were mathematical proofs. At that time I could not see the purpose of them of having to prove the rule, I could not see why I could not assume the rule was true and then show that it was self consistent. Happily since then I have learnt the reason for the need for the rigour of a formal proof. Formal proofs are needed because, unlike disciplines such as Physics and Chemistry whose rules are determined by Mother Nature, mathematics has been devised by man. When a new mathematical rule is developed it has to be shown to be consistent with all the other mathematical rules already in existence. This is the reason why maths involves proofs. A mathematical proof demonstrates that in all cases the new rule will conform with the rest of mathematics. This is what differentiates maths from that other man made construct – the law. Maths is logical, self consistent and produces comparable results, whereas the law is arbitrary, inconsistent and produces many paradoxes which have to adjudicated by human intervention in the person of a judge. This is why Maths is a science, whereas practicing the Law is an art. At Puppet Maths we don’t just teach the rules of maths, we explain the logic of why the rules have been formulated in the way they have. This way pupils get to learn not just what the constituent parts of the science of maths are, but to understand the reasons why the rules of maths have developed in the way they have.