The beauty of maths

Recently Tillerman posted some equations, which I found rather intriguing, even though they seemed only to be how to calculate the force on a Laser sailor's bum.

However its fair to say that not everyone likes maths. To many its abstraction and symbols are a barrier, or a memory of painful days at school, for whom it's hard to believe that equations can be beautiful.

But they really can and to prove it scientists put mathematicians in a brain scanner as they looked at gems like Euler's identity:

This is just stunning, so much of what is important in maths connected together in just a few symbols.

And the reaction on those mathematicians brains, as you can read in this BBC news article, was that the neurons that were fired included those that are triggered for great works of art or music.

There really is beauty in equations.

Of course I've been lucky enough to study maths up to university level, so I've had quite a bit of training.

However the equation at the top (as tweeted by @CERN) is hopefully one that all can appreciate, how ever much maths they've done, as it defines the following 3D shape: