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Well, it's kind of hard to explain.

Basically, pure math deals with just the numbers, and how they can be manipulated and applied in such a way that you can describe almost everything in the universe using math. Pure math can have applications, like something simple: figuring out your car's gas mileage. But pure math can also be used in a million different ways that even I cannot understand. With just numbers, you can basically do almost anything, describe almost everything. What I am saying is that numbers, and advanced mathematics, is every bit as flexible and beautiful as language.

The big difference is that math is also bound by strict logic. There is a correct answer to a given problem, and there is only one. Math follows a logic which is so rigorous it is actually beautiful in it's perfection.

Poetry is the art of using words, and manipulating them, to describe everything in the world. The most complex ideas can, in the hands of a gifted person, be expressed in poetry. That is also true of prose, but poetry, by it's nature, is shorter than prose, and each word is chosen especially for it's punch and impact. A poet will spend forever finding exactly the right word to describe a feeling, while someone who writes prose will use more words. They don't require the precision of a poet.

What Einstein is saying is that pure math is like poetry for logical ideas. It's an art form--one which can precisely and beautifully express a function in the real world. It just does it in a different way, and a different realm.

It's like saying:

Pure math is a way to precisely express the world in a logical manner.

Poetry is a way to precisely express the world in an emotional manner. (Because that is essentially the difference between words and numbers--one is bound by logic, and the other is not.)

Because they both do the same thing, they are essentially the same.

Does any of that make any sense?

I think....

It would seem to me that mathematics is like the silent language of reason, a beautiful expression of logic that makes orderly sense of the world through numbers rather than words or feelings. Poetry tries to convey the meanings of things, describes states of emotion and feelings, basically the world around us, with words. Mathematics is like poetry in this way, trying to make this same sense, describe the world, and convey this same meaning, but logically, with numbers and a tangible system.

It means that there is romance in science and math, not just number crunching.

well i dont no what that quote means but i always thought albert einteins quote was "imagination is more important than knowledge"

i know it does'nt really hellp