Mathematician Maria Chudnovsky describes how the branch of mathematics known as graph theory came to be, and how in some ways it’s a very old problem that people have thought about for thousands of years.
She talks about the interplay between visual and abstract thinking in mathematics, and how mathematics can be transcendent, talking across time and space to other mathematicians, or even to a nons mathematical audience.
She also talks about her own journey with perfect graph problems.
Host Steve Strogatz talks about his own experience with driving his mathematical inquiry, and how it’s different from Chudnovsky’s.
