Why Beauty is Truth Read Free

impossible,” Humbaba joined in, having just arrived at the Tablet House, late as usual. “I mean, Nabu, what am I supposed to do with this? ” He gestured at a homework problem on his tablet. “I multiplya number by itself and add twice the number. The result is 24. What is the number?”
    â€œFour,” said Nabu.
    â€œReally?” asked Gamesh. Humbaba said, “Yes, I know, but how do you get that?”
    Painstakingly, Nabu led his two friends through the procedure that their math teacher had shown them the week before. “Add half of 2 to 24, getting 25. Take the square root, which is 5—”
    Gamesh threw up his hands, baffled. “I’ve never really grasped that stuff about square roots, Nabu.”
    â€œAha!” said Nabu. “Now we’re getting somewhere!” His two friends looked at him as if he’d gone mad. “Your problem isn’t solving equations, Gamesh. It’s square roots!”
    â€œIt’s both,” muttered Gamesh.
    â€œBut square roots come first. You have to master the subject one step at a time, like the Father of the Tablet House keeps telling us.”
    â€œHe also keeps telling us to stop getting dirt on our clothes,” protested Humbaba, “but we don’t take any notice of—”
    â€œThat’s different. It’s—”
    â€œIt’s no good! ” wailed Gamesh. “I’ll never become a scribe, and my father will wallop me until I can’t sit down, and mother will give me that pleading look of hers and tell me I’ve got to work harder and think of the family. But I can’t get math into my head! Law, I can remember. It’s fun! I mean how about ‘If a gentleman’s wife has her husband killed on account of another man, they shall impale her on a stake’? That’s what I call worth learning. Not dumb stuff like square roots.” He paused for breath and his hands shook with emotion. “Equations, numbers—why do we bother? ”
    â€œBecause they’re useful,” replied Humbaba. “Remember all that legal stuff about cutting off slave’s ears?”
    â€œYeah!” said Gamesh. “Penalties for assault.”
    â€œDestroy a common man’s eye,” prompted Humbaba, “and you must pay him—”
    â€œOne silver mina ,” said Gamesh.
    â€œAnd if you break a slave’s bone?”
    â€œYou pay his master half the slave’s price in compensation.”
    Humbaba sprung his trap. “So, if the slave costs sixty shekels, then you have to be able to work out half of sixty. If you want to practice law, you need math!”
    â€œThe answer’s thirty,” said Gamesh immediately.
    â€œSee!” yelled Nabu. “You can do math!”
    â€œI don’t need math for that, it’s obvious.” The would-be lawyer flailed the air, seeking a way to express the depth of his feelings. “If it’s about the real world, Nabu, yes, I can do the math. But not artificial problems about square roots.”
    â€œYou need square roots for land measurement,” said Humbaba.
    â€œYes, but I’m not studying to become a tax collector, my father wants me to be a scribe,” Gamesh pointed out. “Like him. So I don’t see why I have to learn all this math.”
    â€œBecause it’s useful,” Humbaba repeated.
    â€œI don’t think that’s the real reason,” Nabu said quietly. “I think it’s all about truth and beauty, about getting an answer and knowing that it’s right.” But the looks on his friends’ faces told him that they weren’t convinced.
    â€œFor me it’s about getting an answer and knowing that it’s wrong,” sighed Gamesh.
    â€œMath is important because it’s true and beautiful,” Nabu persisted. “Square roots are fundamental for solving equations. They may not be much use, but that doesn’t