數學：我的人生，我的愛

It has been my drug， my 1）meditation， my weapon and my best friend. It fed and dressed me， led to travel， men， 2）lavish parties and even Cuban cigars. It has placed my name on a movie screen， put my work in museums， and allowed me to manipulate cells deep inside the human brain. It is called Math.

In Russia， where I was a child in the 80’s， math was respected and celebrated as a tool for progress and technological advancement. It was presented to school children as a toy with tricky wrapping that one had to 3）outwit to open. We were challenged and encouraged to tackle it. Indeed， math has become the toy of my life and my key to the world， leading me across continents， opening doors to exciting projects and people， and even assisting in the realm of romance.

I was in high school， when I applied math to my love life for the first time. I fell in love， and 4）barricaded in the heavy， still vacuum of my room， was desperately counting clock ticks， waiting for“the call” from the only person whose existence mattered.

It suddenly occurred to me that insecure， self-pitying anticipation could be turned into a confidence-boosting calculation of the probability of his call. What are the chances of his call， given the rumors of another girlfriend he may have had？ How does the likelihood of him being interested diminish with each passing day without a call？ The results did not look promising. My attention， however， was 5）diverted from the lost “love of my life” to a world of quiet concentration where I was queen， which significantly shrank his importance. Mathematically directing myself away from loveless depression， I tuned in to the world again and realized there would be many more romantic adventures to enjoy.

Immigrating to Israel， I discovered that math， more so than my religion， connected me to the young people in my new country. We spoke and read different languages， we lived through different histories， had very different worries， but we all studied math with 6）Hindu-Arabic numerals and learned the same rules of logic. I met my future husband in a graduate math class. At the time we did not speak a common dialect but shared the language of math. Life was easy.

A rainbow of trendy vocations presented themselves once I attained my math degree. The first came with delicious benefits. I was creating a product database at a chocolate factory. They had an “all you can eat at work” policy...

The coolest job of all was in movie special effects. The setting was like a dream： on the ocean side of Los Angeles， a quiet nightclub atmosphere， in an abandoned military 7）hangar， lit by a web of Christmas lights and 8）lava lamps， surrounded by a life-size Princess Leah statue and old Star Wars spaceships， accompanied by a pet parrot.

We， computer graphic p r o g r a m m e r s a n d animators， were making Hollywood history and immortalizing characters on the big screen.

With math I have helped move Godzilla through the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge， and created a Monet-style animation of rap singer Puff Daddy， while experimenting with painting-by-numbers. Inspired by a brilliant talk at a 9）SIGGRAPH conference， I tried to digitally erase the cat’s whiskers for the movie Stuart Little. Some experiments worked and some did not， but the math behind them was thrilling， adventurous and playful.

I earned my Green Card by 10）meticulously planning a hi-jack attempt on Air Force One. It was returning from a summit in Moscow and carrying Harrison Ford as President of the United States. Our team of animators and engineers helped all the explosions look realistic， simulated Air Force One refueling in the air， and made everyone believe that the President had escaped from the plane in a computer-generated pod we created for him， which was dropped through computer-generated doors at the bottom of the plane. I even had a chance to meet the President， I mean Harrison Ford， at the Sony stage， along with other actors who were practicing jumping from a plane in front of a giant air blower. We celebrated the movie opening with an 11）extravagant Hollywood party that included Cuban cigars.

After 9/11 I thought I could help defend my third homeland， the U.S.， from terrorism by teaching computers to recognize suspicious behavior. I abandoned the idea when I realized that my system would have detected me as one of the 1-positives， when after a 15 hour trans-atlantic flight with two little kids， sleep-deprived and afraid of admitting to smuggling an apple in my bag， I would be nervously avoiding the gaze of security men.

Instead， I joined forces against an even broader 12）insidious enemy—cancer. In radio surgery， we use 13）nifty math 14）algorithms to target 15）malignant tumors with the precision of a single hair， radiating and killing the cancer cells while minimizing the damage to surrounding tissue.

Now， 16）ensconced in the mature days of parenthood， I am 17）titillated by incorporating mathematics in our daily family routines. When figuring out the meaning of a double-negation note from school： “Please mark yes or no below if your child will not attend school on Friday.”When convincing myself to buy $250 winter boots because their 18）cost-per-wear appears reasonably small： $250 / （100 cold days x 3 years ） = less than$1 per wear. When advising my son when to jump from the swing in order to enjoy the longest flight into the sand. Or， when finding an 19）optimal home location that will minimize our family’s combined commuting times.

I am trying to pass on my 20）infatuation with math in the same manner that one passes tradition and language through generations. My 5-year old daughter runs around playing super girl and sings，“I can be anything I want to be.” I believe that the love of math may be the real super power that I can share with her， that will bring magic to her life’s journey.

它一直是我的靈藥、我的冥想、我的武器和我最好的朋友。它給予我衣食，將我引向旅行、男人、奢華的盛宴，甚至古巴雪茄。它讓我的名字登上電影銀幕，將我的作品送入博物館，讓我能操控人腦深處的細胞。它的名字便是——數學。

上世紀八十年代，在俄羅斯，當我還是個孩童時，數學作為一種追求進步和技術發展的工具備受尊重和贊美。其作為一種包裝巧妙的玩具呈現給學童，你必須以智取勝才能打開。我們以此為挑戰，受到鼓勵征服難題。實際上，數學已經成為了我人生的玩具和開啟世界的鑰匙，它引領我跨越大洲，打開大門，通向激動人心的項目和人群，甚至在愛情領域也有所幫助。

當我第一次將數學應用于自己的戀愛生活時，正是高中時期。我墜入了愛河，卻被困于沉重寂靜的閨房中，絕望地數著時間的分秒，等候著那唯一具備存在意義之人的“召喚”。

我突然想到，這種缺乏安全感、自憐自艾的期待也能轉變成一種提升自信心的“對方來電幾率”運算。鑒于他還可能有過其他女友的傳聞，他來電的機會有多少呢？每過一天沒有打來電話，他對我感興趣的可能性會減小多少？計算結果不甚樂觀。但是，我的注意力卻被從失去“一生摯愛”轉移到了一個寧靜而專注的世界，在那里我就是女王，這讓他的重要性大大減退。我用算術將自己帶離了失戀的沮喪，而后再次投入數學世界之中，并意識到自己將來還會享受到更多的浪漫旅程。……