There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numerals, and those who don't.

Mathematics is the science of patterns, and nature exploits just about every pattern that there is.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numerals, and those who don't.

Two centuries ago Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians and a founder of number theory, described his brainchild as "the queen of mathematics." Queens are regal, but they are also largely decorative, and this nuance was not lost on Gauss.

Chaos is lawless behavior governed entirely by law.

First is first, and second is nowhere.

Mathematicians are beginning to view order and chaos as two distinct manifestations of an underlying determinism. And neither state exists in isolation. The typical system can exist in a variety of states, some ordered, some chaotic. Instead of two opposed polarities, there is a continuous spectrum. As harmony and discord combine in musical beauty, so order and chaos combine in mathematical [and physical] beauty.