English writer G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a poet but was better known for his pithy sayings. For example, we have the following statement (originally found here).
The
difference
between the poet
and the mathematician
is that the poet tries to get
his head into the heavens
while the mathematician
tries to get the heavens
into his head.
Alas, Chesterton's comment obeys the common assumption that the male pronoun should be used for mathematicians. Another poetic comment on mathematicians is found in a poem by Anthony Hecht -- "Mathematics Considered As a Vice" -- available here at PoetryFoundation.org. Hecht's poem offers a strongly negative view of the abstract nature of mathematics.
Rivalry between mathematics and poetry comes to a head in April -- during which we will celebrate both "National Mathematics Awareness Month" and "National Poetry Month."
Showing posts with label mathematician. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mathematician. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Soon it will be February -- and Valentine's Day
Looking back: on February 12, 2011 I posted math-poetry suggestions for Valentine's Day at this link: Loving a mathematician (Valentine's Day and . . . ). This posting from Feb 9 2013 offers verse along with an animated drawing of a heart-curve --a cardioid. And this link goes to a mathematically poetic digital art exhibit (that includes a cardioid) by Guang Zhu.
For even more poetry related to the love-holiday, enter "Valentine" in the SEARCH box to the right. Enjoy!
For even more poetry related to the love-holiday, enter "Valentine" in the SEARCH box to the right. Enjoy!
Monday, November 2, 2015
Artificial Intelligence in the Library . . .
Libraries are wonderful places and library book sales are temptations impossible to resist -- and so, during a recent trip to Boston and exploration of the historic public library buildings on Boylston Street, I purchased a copy of Living Proof (Florida International University Press, 1985) by Edmund Skellings (1932-2012). Born in Boston and a poet laureate of Florida, Skellings was a pioneer in the application of computers to the arts and humanities. The word "proof" in his title was enough to make me pick up the book and I have relished the opportunity to turn up memories of a long ago graduate course in AI while reading this poem:
Artificial Intelligence by Edmund Skellings
Euclid rolled over in his bones
When Newell & Simon instructed
Their machine to look for new proof
For bisecting the ordinary triangle.
Artificial Intelligence by Edmund Skellings
Euclid rolled over in his bones
When Newell & Simon instructed
Their machine to look for new proof
For bisecting the ordinary triangle.
Labels:
AI,
artificial intelligence,
Boston,
library,
mathematician,
Newell,
poem,
proof,
Simon,
triangle
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Mathematics and Poetry ARE Similar
A recent email request sent me looking for a one-page article / quiz I had published in the American Mathematical Monthly in 1992 -- a list of 17 statements (quotations) each with a word missing. The missing words are either "mathematics" or "poetry" (or a related word). My claim is that, without using the author's name as a clue, it is difficult to decide which of these arts is intended. I offer here the first four of the statements and suggest you reflect on missing words and then, if you wish, follow this link to a file with the entire list -- including also the author of each quote and (afterward) a list of the missing words.
_____ is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. (Mathematics/Poetry)
To think the thinkable -- that is the ____'s aim. (mathematician/poet)
All _____ [is] putting the infinite within the finite. (mathematics/poetry)
The moving power of _____ invention is not reasoning
but imagination. (Mathematical/Poetic)
Labels:
imagination,
infinite,
invention,
mathematician,
mathematics,
Monthly,
poet,
poetry,
similar
Friday, October 23, 2015
JMM Seattle, 1-7-16 -- Poetry+Math+Art
Read your mathy poems in Seattle!
An invitation to participate -- in January! Read on!
ANNOUNCING Poetry + Art + Math
January 7, 2016, Thursday, 5:30 pm–7:00 pm.
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Seattle
At the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) organized by Gizem Karaali, Pomona College;
Lawrence M. Lesser, University of Texas at El Paso; and Douglas Norton, Villanova University.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Daughter and Father - a warm geometry . . .
Kate Stange is a mathematician -- from the Canadian province of Ontario and now at the University of Colorado -- whose father, Ken Stange, is a visual artist and poet. I met them on the internet via our combined interests in the intersections of poetry and mathematics. Lots of years ago, Kate gathered an online anthology of mathy poems. One of her recent online ventures is the development of WIN -- Women in Number Theory. Below I offer one of Ken Stange's poems, taken from his collection Advice to Travellers (Penumbra, 1994).
Don't Mistake Your Mirror for a Window on the World by Ken Stange
Consider your daughter's first smile.
.
Don't Mistake Your Mirror for a Window on the World by Ken Stange
A reflection is both a thought about the world and the image we see in the mirror. -- Hippokrites
Consider your daughter's first smile.
.
Labels:
arc,
artist,
circles,
daughter,
geometry,
Kate Stange,
Ken Stange,
mathematician,
number theory,
poet,
poetry,
WIN
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Three (or fewer) choices
Here is a link to an anthology of English translations of work by Chilean poet and mathematician, Nicanor Parra. Some rank Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval (born 5 September 1914) among the most important poets of Spanish language literature. Parra describes himself as an "anti-poet," having a distaste for poetic pomp and function; after recitations he exclaims "Me retracto de todo lo dicho" ("I take back everything I said"). I posted Parra's small poem "Thoughts" here in October, 2010-- and below I offer another example of Parra's play with ideas and words and numbers:
The Last Toast by Nicanor Parra
Whether we like it or not,
We have only three choices:
Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The Last Toast by Nicanor Parra
Whether we like it or not,
We have only three choices:
Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Labels:
anti-poet,
cards,
Chile,
mathematician,
Nicanor Parra,
three choices
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Sex, Maths, and the Brain
I found this poetry in an abstract (with a link posted at "Women in Maths" on Facebook) for a lecture by Professor Gina Rippon entitled "Sex, Maths, and the Brain" at Aston University in Birmingham, England, on 30 June 2015. Enjoy!
Is there such a thing as a maths
brain? Are mathematicians born
or made? Is the lack of girls
in maths subjects
a 'brain' problem?
Is there such a thing as a maths
brain? Are mathematicians born
or made? Is the lack of girls
in maths subjects
a 'brain' problem?
Labels:
biological,
brain,
consequences,
found poem,
Gina Rippon,
girls,
mathematician,
mathematics,
maths,
sex,
social,
woman
Monday, March 23, 2015
March 23 -- Emmy Noether's birthday
Today, March 23, 2015, Google celebrates the 133rd birthday of mathematician Emmy Noether. In support of the celebration here is a link to "My Dance is Mathematics," a poem I wrote to honor this pioneering mathematician. I hope that celebrations of Noether and other math-women will help to create a world in which these lines from my poem about her are no longer true:
If a woman's dance is mathematics,
she dances alone.
If a woman's dance is mathematics,
she dances alone.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
The mathematician, she . . . .
Tomorrow, March 8, is the International Day of the Woman -- and I celebrate the day with mixed feelings. YES, there are many women I want to celebrate. BUT WHY are they not celebrated daily, equally with men? And a more specific concern, WHY, when the word "mathematician" is used, is the person assumed to be a man. (There is, on the other hand, a nice non-gendered neutrality in numbers -- as in this first stanza of "Numbers," by Mary Cornish, found below.)
In this posting I celebrate Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906-1992) -- a mathematician with a doctorate from Yale, a navy admiral, a computer scientist who led in the development of COBOL, an early (c.1959) programming language. A person I had the good fortune to meet when she visited Bloomsburg University in 1984 to receive an honorary Doctor of Science Degree. Hopper was imaginative and articulate; here is some poetry found in her words.
If it's a
good idea,
do it.
In this posting I celebrate Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906-1992) -- a mathematician with a doctorate from Yale, a navy admiral, a computer scientist who led in the development of COBOL, an early (c.1959) programming language. A person I had the good fortune to meet when she visited Bloomsburg University in 1984 to receive an honorary Doctor of Science Degree. Hopper was imaginative and articulate; here is some poetry found in her words.
If it's a
good idea,
do it.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Fractals -- poems and photos
Marc Frantz and Annalisa Crannell have written about mathematics and art (Viewpoints: Mathematical Perspectives and Fractal Geometry in Art: Princeton University Press, 2011) and now Frantz (who is both a mathematician and an artist, a painter) has collaborated with a poet -- Robin Walthery Allen -- to develop a collection entitled Dance of Eye and Mind (not yet published). I am honored to present a poem-photo pair from this exquisite collection.
What is in us that must reach the top,
that longs to look down upon the world as if a god?
Don’t we know that in this infinite space
the same rocks at the seashore know the secret of each peak?
What is in us that must reach the top,
that longs to look down upon the world as if a god?
Don’t we know that in this infinite space
the same rocks at the seashore know the secret of each peak?
Labels:
dance,
fractal,
geometry,
infinite,
Marc Frantz,
mathematician,
photograph,
poetry,
Robin Walthery Allen,
space
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Poet as mathematician
Lillian Morrison (1917-2014) was a NYC poet and librarian whose work I first met in the poetry-with-math anthology, Against Infinity. Here is one of her poems from that collection.
Poet as Mathematician by Lillian Morrison
Having perceived the connexions, he seeks
the proof, the clean revelation in its
simplest form, never doubting that somewhere
waiting in the chaos, is the unique
elegance, the precise, airy structure,
defined, swift-lined, and indestructible.
Morrison's insightful poem disappoints me in one important way: her mathematician-poet is "he." Another Morrison poem, "The Locus of a Point," may be found in my posting for 15 September 2014.
Poet as Mathematician by Lillian Morrison
Having perceived the connexions, he seeks
the proof, the clean revelation in its
simplest form, never doubting that somewhere
waiting in the chaos, is the unique
elegance, the precise, airy structure,
defined, swift-lined, and indestructible.
Morrison's insightful poem disappoints me in one important way: her mathematician-poet is "he." Another Morrison poem, "The Locus of a Point," may be found in my posting for 15 September 2014.
Labels:
Against Infinity,
Lillian Morrison,
mathematician,
poet,
proof
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Hailstone numbers shape a poem
One of my favorite mathy poets is Halifax mathematician Robert Dawson -- his work is complex and inventive, and fun to puzzle over. Dawson's webpage at St Mary's University lists his mathematical activity; his poetry and fiction are available in several issues of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics and in several postings for this blog (15 April 2012, 30 November 2013, 2 March 2014) and in various other locations findable by Google.
Can a poem be written by following a formula? Despite the tendency of most of us to say NO to this question we also may admit to the fact that a formula applied to words can lead to arrangements and thoughts not possible for us who write from our own learning and experiences. How else to be REALLY NEW but to try a new method? Set a chimpanzee at a typewriter or apply a mathematical formula.
Below we offer Dawson's "Hailstone" and follow it with his explanation of how mathematics shaped the poem from its origin as a "found passage" from the beginning of Dickens' Great Expectations.
Can a poem be written by following a formula? Despite the tendency of most of us to say NO to this question we also may admit to the fact that a formula applied to words can lead to arrangements and thoughts not possible for us who write from our own learning and experiences. How else to be REALLY NEW but to try a new method? Set a chimpanzee at a typewriter or apply a mathematical formula.
Below we offer Dawson's "Hailstone" and follow it with his explanation of how mathematics shaped the poem from its origin as a "found passage" from the beginning of Dickens' Great Expectations.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Narrated by a mathematician
Recently translated by Adam Morris, the novel With My Dog-Eyes (Melville House, 2014) by Brazilian writer Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) is narrated by a mathematician-poet. That fact of narration is what first drew me to the book. (See also this July 3 posting.) And then there is (related in Morris's introduction to the translation) Hilst's sad life, perhaps mirrored in her characters. These are the opening lines from the novel's narrator:
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
Labels:
Adam Morris,
edges,
faces,
Hlda Hilst,
magician,
mathematician,
poet,
polyhedron,
vertices
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Mathematician and Poet
Should I do it? Should I do a blog post on a novel by Brazilian poet Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) that I have begun to read but don't yet know how to understand?
Hilst's novel, With My Dog-Eyes, newly translated by Adam Morris (Melville House, 2014), attracted my attention because its narrator is a mathematician and a poet. Here are the lines with which the novel begins:
from With My Dog-Eyes by Hilda Hilst
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
Hilst's novel, With My Dog-Eyes, newly translated by Adam Morris (Melville House, 2014), attracted my attention because its narrator is a mathematician and a poet. Here are the lines with which the novel begins:
from With My Dog-Eyes by Hilda Hilst
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
Labels:
Adam Morris,
Bertrand Russell,
Hilda Hilst,
magician,
mathematician,
poet
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Public Image of a Mathematician
From John Dawson -- a professor emeritus of mathematics at the Penn State York campus and well-known for his publications in mathematical logic, often focusing on the life and work of Kurt Godel -- a poem on a topic that this blog visits from time to time, portraits of mathematicians.
Public Image by John W. Dawson, Jr.
Please,
I'm not an accountant.
No,
Mine doesn't always balance either.
What do I do then?
Well,
On good days
I prove theorems;
Public Image by John W. Dawson, Jr.
Please,
I'm not an accountant.
No,
Mine doesn't always balance either.
What do I do then?
Well,
On good days
I prove theorems;
Labels:
accountant,
John Dawson,
Kurt Godel,
logic,
mathematician,
mathematics,
poem
Sunday, May 4, 2014
A pure mathematician (not!)
Poet Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943) was known for his humorous verse. Here is "A Pure Mathematician" -- a poem that stereotypes mathematicians in familiar, unflattering ways (from The Laughing Muse (Harper Brothers, 1915)). In contrast to Guiterman's verse that pokes fun at mathematicians, I invite you to visit this posting from 28 January 2011 to read Sherman Stein's "Mathematician" -- a poem that not only is more fair to the profession but also features a female mathematician.
A Pure Mathematician by Arthur Guiterman
Let Poets chant of Clouds and Things
In lonely attics!
A Nobler Lot is his, who clings
To Mathematics.
Sublime he sits, no Worldly Strife
His Bosom vexes,
Reducing all the Doubts of Life
To Y's and X's.
A Pure Mathematician by Arthur Guiterman
Let Poets chant of Clouds and Things
In lonely attics!
A Nobler Lot is his, who clings
To Mathematics.
Sublime he sits, no Worldly Strife
His Bosom vexes,
Reducing all the Doubts of Life
To Y's and X's.
Labels:
Arthur Guiterman,
hypoetenuse,
logarithm,
mathematician,
mathematics,
portrait,
pure
Monday, February 10, 2014
To love, in perfect syllables
While looking for Valentine verse with a math connection, I opened my copy of The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll (Chancellor Press, 1982). And found this one in which Carroll (a pen name for English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodson (1832-1898)) uses the word one twice and the word half twice and has counted sounds so that in each line the number of syllables is either a cube of an integer or is perfect.
Lesson in Latin by Lewis Carroll (May 1888)
Lesson in Latin by Lewis Carroll (May 1888)
Labels:
Charles Lutwidge Dodson,
count,
cube,
half,
Lewis Carroll,
love,
mathematician,
mathematics,
one,
Pablo Neruda,
perfect,
Valentine
Friday, January 31, 2014
On shoulders of giants . . .
Washington, DC is a city rich with both poetry and mathematics. Last Tuesday evening I attended a Mathematical Association of America (MAA) lecture by author and math historian William Dunham (whom I knew when he taught for a bunch of years at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College, in Eastern Pennsylvania, not so far from my employer, Bloomsburg University). Dunham spoke of insights gained by many hours reading the correspondence of British mathematician and scientist, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The discoverer of "gravity," and, moreover, both a genius and a disagreeable man. Still, Newton was a man who gave a nod to his predecessors, "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants."
Labels:
David Arns,
fluxions,
gravity,
MAA,
mathematician,
poem,
Principia,
Sir Isaac Newton,
William Dunham
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Extraneous -- and so on
Since my junior high math days, when I first heard the word "extraneous," I have loved the sound of it, the feel of my mouth when I say it, the mystery of how solving an equation can lead to extra solutions. And then learning to check found-solutions to see if they were true solutions -- a process that has been multiply useful to me far afield from mathematics.
My love for this math-word drew me quickly to the title of a poem by Alex Walsh, a high school student from Oberlin, Ohio, who presented her work at the poetry-with-math reading at JMM in Baltimore last Friday. Here are her poems "Convergence" and "The Extraneous Solution" :
My love for this math-word drew me quickly to the title of a poem by Alex Walsh, a high school student from Oberlin, Ohio, who presented her work at the poetry-with-math reading at JMM in Baltimore last Friday. Here are her poems "Convergence" and "The Extraneous Solution" :
Labels:
Alex Walsh,
convergence,
extraneous,
infinite,
JMM Poetry Reading,
math,
mathematician,
permutation,
poetry,
polynomial
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