A poetry collection by Susan Case (see also 5 July 2011 posting) -- The Scottish Cafe (Slapering Hole Press, 2002) -- celebrates the lives and minds of a group of mathematicians in Poland during World War II. Its observations and insights add a new dimension to the important story of the Scottish Book to which it refers -- a book in which the mathematicians reorded their problems and solutions. First published in a mimeographed edition in 1957 by Stanislaw Ulam, The Scottish book: mathematics from the Scottish Café (Birkhäuser, 1981) may now be seen and searched at GoogleBooks. Case's collection includes statements of two of the Scottish Book's problems: here, below, is "problem 193" -- which I offer as a "found poem." A photo of its Scottish Book solution follows.
Showing posts with label Stefan Banach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stefan Banach. Show all posts
Friday, August 5, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Mathematicians at work
About her collecton, The Scottish Café (Slapering Hol Press, 2002), Susan Case offers this note:
This series of poems is loosely based upon the experiences of the mathematicians of the Scottish Café, who lived and worked in Lvov, Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine), a center of Eastern European intellectual life before World War II, close to the area from which my own ancestors emigrated to the United States. A book, known as the Scottish Book, was kept in the Café and used to write down some of their problems and solutions. Whoever offered a proof might be awarded a prize.
Here is "Fixed Points," the opening poem from Case's collection:
This series of poems is loosely based upon the experiences of the mathematicians of the Scottish Café, who lived and worked in Lvov, Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine), a center of Eastern European intellectual life before World War II, close to the area from which my own ancestors emigrated to the United States. A book, known as the Scottish Book, was kept in the Café and used to write down some of their problems and solutions. Whoever offered a proof might be awarded a prize.
Here is "Fixed Points," the opening poem from Case's collection:
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