@thompsonson when i was a lad - and ‘learning’ math(s) - not sure from which side o’ the Atlantic you hail - and definitely before I ‘studies’ the same … my teacher looked at us urchins and said (paraphrasing here as you might guess …)

> imagine if this entire classroom contained everything we know - equations, proofs, theories, concepts, books … everything - about all of mathematics …. now down here in this corner there is a 1 inch cube. That cube is large enough to contain every part of maths that we today can apply.

It stuck with me - and in fact one of the influencers in taking me into the ‘study’ field of ‘pure’ maths.

Whether that was true then … whether it holds today … no idea - but the story has stayed with me. Even to the point of him crouching down in the corner and pointing to that imaginary 1 inch cube.