Visual Mathematics

Abstract

I consider myself a “visual” person, as pictures help me understand complex problems. I also don’t find it too difficult to visualise objects from different view points. I remember learning about electrons, neutrons and protons for the first time, where our planetary system provided a simple model to visualise the hidden structure of matter. My mental image of electrons was one of small orange spheres, spinning around a small, central nucleus containing blue protons and grey neutrons. I had still to discover the mechanism of colour, and although this visual model was seriously flawed, it provided a first step towards understanding the structure of matter.