Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers,
formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are
contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in
modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra,
geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among
mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline.
Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract
objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of
either abstractions from nature or—in modern mathematics—entities that are
stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms.