A millennium-old question: why do we need to learn mathematics?

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　　What is mathematics? Throughout our lives, from elementary school to middle school and university, we need to study mathematics. Therefore, many people wonder why they have to learn so much math What’s the point? 　　The direct reason for such confusion is that many people lack a sufficient understanding of the significance of mathematics and mathematics education, and there are even many misconceptions. Take mobile phones for example; we can see the benefits that their development has brought to societal progress and human life, but we fail to recognize the crucial underlying support—basic science, especially mathematics. 　　What is mathematics? Mathematics is a discipline that studies concepts such as quantity, structure, change, space, and information; from a certain perspective, it belongs to the category of formal sciences. In the development of human history and social life, mathematics also plays an irreplaceable role; it is an essential basic tool for learning and researching modern science and technology. 　　Why is mathematics considered a fundamental subject? Because everything in nature has two aspects: \"number\" and \"shape\". Therefore, the quantitative relationships and spatial forms described by mathematics naturally become the foundation of natural sciences such as physics, mechanics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology. Mathematics provides the language and tools for these sciences, and its most important characteristic is the abstract nature of its objects of study. 　　It is precisely this abstraction in mathematics that makes it seem dull and uninteresting to many people, and it also leads them to wonder why they should learn mathematics at all. For example, when we talk about an apple, biology is concerned with the environment in which the apple grows, chemistry focuses on the components of the apple, physics led to Newton’s discoveries, while mathematics is only interested in the number \"one\". Just as in mathematics, to prove the Pythagorean theorem, it is not sufficient to rely on a few special right triangles; rather, it is necessary to demonstrate that the theorem applies to all right triangles. This is also a mathematical spirit; the ancient Greeks regarded this spirit of mathematics as a scientific one that freed humanity from the constraints of narrow experience. They believed from an early stage that every proposition in mathematics had to be derived through formal logic, based on clear assumptions and pre-established axioms and postulates. It was precisely this mathematical spirit that led to the discovery of irrational numbers and the creation of Euclid’s \"Elements,\" encouraging people to think about and understand the world rationally; as a result, ancient Greece’s mathematical achievements far surpassed those of several other ancient civilizations of its time. 　　Later, during the European Renaissance, this mathematical spirit of ancient Greece was further developed in Europe, driving the progress of mathematics and natural sciences. For example, the creation of calculus and the discovery of the law of universal gravitation. 　　Another beauty of mathematics is that its conclusions are eternal and do not change over the course of time. Mathematics is such a science whose development does not involve the rejection of existing theories, but rather a further expansion and enhancement of existing knowledge. 　　Today, IT technology has been widely applied in human life, making its presence felt everywhere. However, those who benefit from these achievements often see only the technical results, without recognizing the mathematics that plays a key role behind them. Examples include medical CT technology, automation in Chinese typesetting, computer-aided design of the Boeing 777, fingerprint recognition, data processing in oil seismic exploration, and network security technologies. Behind these great achievements, mathematics plays a very important and indispensable role. 　　Generally, we refer to mathematics after calculus as advanced mathematics, while calling the mathematics prior to it elementary mathematics ； Its content should mainly include: elementary algebra, Euclidean geometry, trigonometric functions, and an introduction to analytic geometry. What we usually refer to as mathematics education generally encompasses the three stages of primary school, junior high school, and senior high school. 　　Therefore, if a person does not master mathematical knowledge during middle school and lacks a solid foundation in elementary mathematics, it is difficult to learn advanced mathematics well. If one does not master advanced mathematics, how can they learn the relevant specialized knowledge? Fields such as computer science, accounting, various economics disciplines, statistics, finance, and economic management all require a substantial amount of knowledge in advanced mathematics. 　　However, the significance of mathematics education lies not only in the imparting of knowledge, but more importantly in its impact on people’s abilities and mental state. Such as cultivating our scientific spirit, spirit of exploration, and spirit of innovation, and so on. Many people think that mathematics is useless; they only see the imparting of knowledge, without recognizing the impact of mathematics on individuals, its spirit, or the significance of mathematics education. 　　Perhaps once we enter society, we will no longer need to solve quadratic equations, nor will we need to solve equations or do math problems, but the thinking skills, logical abilities, and reasoning skills that we acquire through mathematics will accompany us throughout our lives.