The Theory of Perspective: Why Mathematics Depends on the Way We Look at It
Imagine standing in the middle of a long railway track. As you look ahead in the distance, the two parallel rails track appear to meet at a single point on the horizon. But you know that they never actually touch each other, yet your eyes insist that they do. This simple observation teaches us one of the most important lessons in mathematics: what we see depends on the perspective from which we observe .i.e. the way we understand or interpret something highly depends on the viewpoint from which we look at it. Perspective is not just an artistic technique used by specialized painters. It is a way of understanding how observation shapes our interpretation of reality. Mathematics often begins when we question whether our first impression tells us the whole story behind it or not? Let’s consider a circle. To someone looking directly at it say from the top view, it is perfectly round. Now tilt the circle, however, and it appears like an ellipse. Has the circle changed its shape? No. bu...
