Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Mathy Limericks

     Many mathy poets enjoy the challenge of satisfying (or almost-satisfying) the prescribed rhythm and rhyme schemes for the five-line poem-form called a limerick.  Below are five limerick-creations from Kate Jones, poet and part of Kadon Enterprises, creator of a host of mathematical game puzzles. (AND this link leads to several earlier postings in this blog that also present verses in limerick form.)

     Limericks     by Kate Jones

     There once was an artist supreme
     Whose geometry had a rare scheme.
          Tessellations and creatures
          And impossible features. . .
     MC Escher created an infinite dream.   

There once was a famous logician
For whom paradox was his ambition.
     For decades he lit mental fires
     With tales of truthtellers or liars.
Getting people to think was Raymond Smullyan's greatest mission.

     There once was an author of note.
     The hundreds of essays he wrote
          All helped celebrate
          How math is so great.
     On all of those topics Martin Gardner you'll quote.

A fabulous polymath whom we've sighted
The Queen of England has knighted.
     Of black holes and quantum stuff
     Our knowledge is never enough.
Still, Roger Penrose's tilings have us all delighted.

     There once was a radical physicist.
     Upon experiments to find truth he'd insist.
          You can quote him galore,
          He was wise to the core.
     Richard Feynman said that, for science, minds must exist.

Thanks, Kate, for sharing your work here!

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