Maths and games

Games and mathematics are intimately linked. By solving problems or imagining theories, are we not playing? Conversely, the various strategies developed by a player and the algorithms for solving situations in board games gave rise to a field of mathematics, game theory. We then understand why games can... "play" a role in school and make education fun. What if every math problem took the form of a game? Puzzles and other recreational pastimes have long been popular with readers, in the press as well as in publishing. Eminent mathematicians have even posed challenges at the boundary between pure play and mathematical problems. Doing math through play means reconciling the useful and the pleasant, it means improving life in society. It is not surprising that the theme of Maths Week 2019 is "Playing together with mathematics".

Exactly five hundred years after his death, Léonard de Vinci still fascinates. For the French, it is through the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, and the spectacular inventions presented at the Clos Lucé castle in Amboise. Artist, engineer, scientist, this brilliant Italian scholar crossed the Alps to end his days in the Loire Valley. His close connection with Luca Pacioli, a mathematician who founded accounting, led Léonard toward a mathematical approach. His drawings of polyhedra transform geometric figures into works of art. In a world emerging from the Middle Ages, well before René Descartes, his mastery both theoretical and practical of perspective led him to understand, through the close connection that exists between painting and mathematics, the importance of the scientific approach.