If you were to work out what mathematical research has cost the world in the last 100 years, and then work out what the world has gained, in crude economic terms, then you would discover that the world has received an extraordinary return on a very small investment.I don't doubt this. But has anyone actually tried to do this? (And would the numbers even be meaningful?)
27 September 2009
Economic impact of mathematics?
Tim Gowers wrote in The Importance of Mathematics: