Math and Metaphor

Math lives in as much as it is metaphorical or symbolic. Lakoff and Turner, in the book "More than Cool Reason", discuss two forms of metaphors called "Image-metaphors" and "image-schema metaphors". Image schemas lack the richness of plain image metaphors, but supply general structures like bounded regions, paths, centers, etc. and spatial senses like in, out, to, from, and along. It is these structures that occur profusely in Math and which it can supply in bountiful quantities. For example, in and out can be related to general existential issues of birth and death, as it is said we "come into " this world when we are born and "go out" or leave this world when we die. Therefore, an equation that describes a starting point and an ending point will be somewhat metaphorical to these two basic existential issues.