The International Day of Mathematics—Because the World Needs Math!

UNESCO recently made March 14th the International Day of Mathematics (IDM), because 3/14 is a clever reference to pi. To be celebrated for the first time on March 13th (because the 14th is a Saturday), the IDM shines a light on the crucial role mathematics play in all aspects of our lives. To mark the first IDM, a number of events in Canada and around the world will give youth an opportunity to discover this role.

Math explains the world

Mathematics is everywhere—that’s this year’s IDM theme. If you’re having doubts about the ubiquity of math, you’ll be convinced when you visit this website created by the International Mathematical Union, which is coordinating the IDM. It explores some 30 topics as a fun way to discover how math informs various aspects of everyday life.

Of course, topics covered include technology like artificial intelligence, cryptography, and video games. But technology is far from being the only field that uses math—you will learn that mathematic calculations are just as fundamental in analyzing epidemics, drawing up maps, and designing rollercoasters!

The environment is another field in which mathematics contributes vital tools. This is what Canadian mathematician Christiane Rousseau has highlighted in her leading role in having March 14th declared the International Day of Mathematics by UNESCO.

One mathematician’s passion in service to the Earth

Christiane Rousseau implemented and led the Mathematics of Planet Earth initiative in 2013 (MPE2013), which received UNESCO patronage and was, in a way, a precursor of the IDM. The initiative, which had the same scope as an international day, explored the innumerable ways math can be used to study our planet, its ecosystems, and its organization by humankind. “Understanding the mathematics underneath worldwide issues and disseminating these research issues within the scientific community has become my passion,” she says.

In the years that followed, Dr. Rousseau, a former mathematics professor at the Université de Montréal, met many junior college students and was struck by a realization—they were more interested in the applications of math than in math itself. Lately, when speaking to youth about climate change, their eyes light up. They feel directly concerned and are highly receptive to the ways in which math can help our civilizations face one of humanity’s biggest challenges—preventing the environmental crisis and preparing to deal with its inevitable impacts.

“When kids ask me what we should do, I don’t have a ready-made answer,” she says. “I’m here to tell them about the scientific tools that exist and that they can take advantage of, in an interdisciplinary context, to find solutions.”

Useful calculations for fostering sustainable development

Planetary systems are eminently complex. Numerous factors are in permanent interplay—the oceans, the atmosphere, the ice, the soil, the ecosystems, etc. To understand the Earth’s past and plan its future, we must build powerful mathematical models.

Climate studies lend themselves particularly well to mathematical modelling. Math can help shed light on important questions, including:

• Has Arctic sea ice reached a point of no return? If so, when did it happen? With less ice in the summer, the water’s surface absorbs more heat, which then slows freezing in winter, and the pattern repeats. This feedback loop can lead to a tipping point beyond which the equilibrium is broken; temperatures would have to decrease for several consecutive years for the pattern to be reversed.

• How do we make sure we get the most out of renewable energies? Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies significantly reduces greenhouse gases, but renewable energies do still have an environmental footprint and production and distribution costs. Additionally, certain sources of renewable energy fluctuate based on time and weather, which requires meticulous planning in terms of production and consumption.

Some questions are harder to answer and even thwart the efforts of researchers, which explains the deep uncertainty tied to the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For example:

• What kind of clouds will hang in the skies of the next few decades? Christiane Rousseau says that “thick cloud cover protects Earth from the sun’s heat, whereas thin cloud cover actually intensifies greenhouse effects.”

• Will the melting of glaciers accelerate their descent towards the oceans? If Antarctica’s glaciers melt down completely, sea levels could rise more than 60 metres. Even if glaciers don’t melt completely, partial melting can still lead them to slide into the waters, which would result in a much faster rise in sea levels than if they simply melted down.

Math sciences are an often-misunderstood toolbox for dealing with complex issues such as these, but they are essential and ever changing. According to Dr. Rousseau, the examples above should encourage us to rethink the way we see mathematics.