Greetings to one and all, and welcome to Mathyrious!! This website is for those who are interested in understanding the concepts that form the theoretical underpinnings of mathematics without necessarily wishing to engage in the nuts and bolts calculations that applying those concepts might entail. Unfortunately, even those engaging in the least intensive interpretation of such a project are often discouraged by a barrage of technical jargon, arcane symbolism, and theorems that appear to violate common sense. I will use my humble corner of the internet to post my own musings on such matters and hopefully dispel some of the confusion.
Mathyrious, the title I have given to this website and its accompanying YouTube channel, is a conflation of the words mathematics and mysterious. This title alludes to the aura of hidden truth that has always accompanied mathematics in general and its pure (rather than applied) form in particular. This website’s motto (… exploring the web of pure mathematics) highlights the interconnected nature of those truths.
There are many content creators on YouTube and elsewhere who provide excellent, straightforward expositions at varying levels of mathematical maturity. I do not seek to merely repeat what has been presented satisfactorily elsewhere. Since the fruits of mathematics in the applied sciences is self-evident to anyone who has followed the development of technology in the last few decades, my central focus will be elsewhere. This does not mean I will ignore such developments but rather that my focus will be broader to include theoretical ideas from areas other than those which generate immediate practical benefits. For example, this wider intellectual net might include how mathematics interacted with ideas not only from science and technology, but also philosophy, religion, the arts, and even entertainment. Mathematics has never operated in a cultural vacuum, and a closer examination should offer insight into how and why the consensus among mathematicians has developed over the centuries.
For transparency’s sake, I wish to make clear that I am not a mathematician. I am an amateur who is fascinated by mathematics and its place in the Western intellectual tradition. Thus, I will approach mathematics more from its traditional role in the liberal arts than from its contemporary position within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but not to the exclusion of the latter. This also explains my particular emphasis on mathematics in its pure rather than applied form.
While I have tried to keep prior mathematical knowledge to a minimum, there must be some expectations of a shared background. I will presume readers are familiar with material usually covered in primary and secondary school mathematics curricula. This would include basic arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. This material will be reviewed as necessary.
There are eight planned content areas on this website as follows:
● News
● Blog
● Notes
● Quizzes
● Books
● Articles
● Videos
● Links
If you are viewing on a mobile device, a dropdown menu for access to the home page and the main page for each area appears above with three horizontal lines. For other devices, a menu bar appears on the right-hand side of each page.
The Blog will contain the website’s primary content. The posts on the Blog will generally be intuitive discussions and opinions intended to be self-contained without any attempt at a comprehensive treatment. Eventually, related posts may be compiled and edited into a whole document and placed in the Notes. Additionally, there may be more thorough treatments of specific areas already covered for those who wish to go deeper into a subject. At various points, I may post problems in Quizzes so readers may assess their understanding of the material.
Additional areas include recommended Books, Articles, and Links to content creators on mathematics and related fields. Selected material from the website serves as the source for videos on the Mathyrious YouTube channel and is mirrored in the Videos area on this website. The content is not the videos’ script but their basis. Some videos may expand on the material if I think additional background is necessary.
This website will begin going online in the coming months, and all areas should be functional by the end of 2026.