Reading Numbers Like Poetry

      When I come across a title that connects math and poetry, I become interested -- and want to read more. Google helped me discover here, in China Daily, an article featuring German professor Andrea Breard entitled "Reading numbers like poetry: A journey into ancient Chinese math."  She goes on to tell about some algebraic methods that were written as poems -- the rhythm allowing easier and better memorization.  

     Andrea Breard is a German historian of mathematics, specializing in Chinese mathematics.  Her remarks took me back to my childhood when we frequently repeated "counting rhymes" as we dressed or played or whatever.  "One, Two, Buckle my shoe . . ." and "Hickory, Dickory, Dock . . . the mouse ran up the clock . . ." were frequent  parts of my childhood chatter.

Share the Love of Math -- Students -- Enter Contest!

A Contest for High School Students -- Read on to learn more . . .

     Students who are 15 to 18 years old (on September 1, 2025) are invited to apply for the 2026 Steven H. Strogatz Prize for Math Communication (sponsored by MoMath, the NY Museum of Mathematics) to share their love of math with the world!

     On or before April 23, 2026 projects will be accepted in the following categories:

        Art, Audio, Performance, Social media, Video, and Writing.

Examples include: podcasts, articles, school newspaper columns, art exhibits, videos, websites, Instagram accounts, songs, plays, and any other mode of public communication.  Detailed information is available at this link.

Celebrate Math-Women -- AWM Essay Contest

 Entry deadline is coming soon -- February 1, 2026.

Students are invited to interview a math-woman
and write about it -- 
and submit the essay to the Association for Women in Mathematics
by February 1, 2026.

Guidelines (middle-school, high school, college submissions) are here.

Previous winning essays are available here (follow the link and scroll down).  

Math, Poetry, and AI

     Recently I came across a math-poetry article here in a newsletter published by the University of Illinois, Springfield -- an article entitled "Navigating the Intersection of Math, Poetry, and AI: The Crossroads in Helena Soares’ Pursuit."  The article shares poetry by Soares -- who is a student majoring in both mathematics and English -- and also includes a brief essay by her, entitled "A journey through math, AI, and poetry."   Here is a poem by Soares from that article:  

Holding Logic and Imagination Together

     Recently Google led me to a recent and fascinating article about Jordanian poet Dr. Zaina Al-Qasem, a Jordanian scholar, who combines data science with creativity and is also a published poet.  For her, mathematics and poetry share thought patterns — both driven by interpretation, structure, and the search for meaning, but through different lenses.

Here are a few reflective lines of Zaina Al-Qasem's verse -- found in the article linked-to above  -- lines that capture both introspection and intent.