Ganesh Swami

All mathematics is divided into three parts: cryptography (paid for by CIA, KGB and the like), hydrodynamics (supported by manufacturers of atomic submarines) and celestial mechanics (financed by military and by other institutions dealing with missiles, such as NASA.).

Cryptography has generated number theory, algebraic geometry over finite fields, algebra (the creator of modern algebra, Viete, was the cryptographer of King Henry IV of France), combinatorics and computers.

Hydrodynamics procreated complex analysis, partial derivative equations, Lie groups and algebra theory, cohomology theory and scientific computing.

Celestial mechanics is the origin of dynamical systems, linear algebra, topology, variational calculus and symplectic geometry.

– Vladimir I. Arnold. Polymathematics: is mathematics a single science or a set of arts? In Mathematics: Frontiers and Perspectives. American Mathematical Society, 2000, pp. 403-416.

Vladimir Arnold is one of my favorite authors. He along-with Professor Jerrold E. Marsden must have written some of the best books on mechanics (this one and this one.) I’m writing the section connecting geodesics, metrics and Euler-Lagrange equations and I wasn’t sure how to introduce the material and looked to these books for inspiration.

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