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Mathematician and author Eugenia Cheng visits Google to discuss her book \u201cIs Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics\u2019 Deepest Truths.\u201d The book aims to liberate math from its shackles to show how human curiosity, creativity, rule-breaking and seemingly silly questions can point us to some of mathematics\u2019 most profound answers.

Where do we learn math: From rules in a textbook? From logic and deduction? Not really, according to mathematician Eugenia Cheng: we learn it from human curiosity\u2014most importantly, from asking questions. This may come as a surprise to those who think that math is about finding the one right answer, or those who were told that the \u201cdumb\u201d question they asked just proved they were bad at math. But Cheng shows why people who ask questions like \u201cWhy does 1 + 1 = 2?\u201d are at the very heart of the search for mathematical truth.

\u201cIs Math Real?\u201d is a much-needed repudiation of the rigid ways we\u2019re taught to do math, and a celebration of the true, curious spirit of the discipline. Written with intelligence and passion, \u201cIs Math Real?\u201d brings us math as we\u2019ve never seen it before, revealing how profound insights can emerge from seemingly unlikely sources.

Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.