To underscore his view of math as both art and romance, Frenkel showed Colbert a short scene from his 2010 erotic art film, “Rites of Love and Math,” in which he starred and directed. He said that many teachers have explained mathematics as if it were a necessary but unpleasant task, “like painting a fence,” as opposed to offering skills to both create and appreciate a van Gogh. “That’s my fault,” responded Frenkel, 45, a household name in math departments for his work on such obscure concepts as Kac-Moody algebra and the Feigin-Frenkel isomorphism. Berkeley professor Edward Frenkel, author of the new book “Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality,” explained to talk show host Stephen Colbert that for people like him “mathematics is a love affair,” with his lover being the beauty and truth of numbers. It’s not often that a mathematician finds himself on “The Colbert Report.” But a few weeks ago U.C.
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