Recently I prepared an item for Rachel Levy's Grandma Got STEM blog that told a bit about my granddaughters who like math. My preparation for that posting led me to focus on my wish to have math be a fun place for girls to hang out -- a place for lots of girls: feminine girls, sporty girls, popular girls, silly girls (as well as geek girls). Mathematics has mostly been a lonely place for females -- my first girl-friend who was also a math person was a colleague whom I met in my 40s (see my poem for Toni, "Girl-Talk"). I want mathematics to be a welcoming place for my granddaughters. A place with friends.
Related to this concern, wonderful news came in my email box recently from Susanne Pumpluen (video) at the University of Nottingham. She has started a Women in Maths page on Facebook . There one can find bios, videos, news links and FRIENDS. Visit. LIKE. Offer your comments and support.
Showing posts with label poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poem. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
How many grains of sand?
Sand beaches are places I love to walk. Next to oceans and soft underfoot.
Contemplating grains of sand turns my thoughts to the pair of terms "finite" and "infinite." One of my friends, university-educated, versed in literature and philosophy, offered "all of the grains of sand" as an example of an infinite set. As we talked further, he proposed "the stars in the universe" as a second example. This guy, like many, equates "infinite" with "too large to count." And then there is me; long ago in college I encountered a definition of "infinite" that went something like this: A set is infinite if there is a one-to-one correspondence between the members of the given set or one of its proper subsets with the set {1, 2, 3, . . ..} of counting numbers.
Below I post a stanza from Richard Bready's "Times of Sand" --
a long poem that explores many of the numbers related to sand.
Labels:
calculus,
finite,
Garrett Hardin,
infinite,
mathematics,
poem,
Richard Bready,
sand,
Tragedy of the Commons
Friday, February 6, 2015
Celebrate Black History, Valentine's Day
February is Black History Month and on the 14th we celebrate love with Valentine's Day. To find in this blog a variety of mathy poems on these topics (and many others) use the SEARCH box found at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.
Labels:
Black History Month,
love,
mathy,
poem,
Valentine
Friday, January 30, 2015
Twined Arcs, Defying Euclid
The English language has adopted into current usage many terms from other languages. French terms like coup de grace and haut monde have for many years been found in English dictionaries. Recently, computer terms such as bite and captcha and google have achieved widespread use. In addition, those of us who are fluent in the language of mathematics find that its terms sometimes offer a concise best way to describe a non-mathematical phenomenon.
Mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz weaves mathematical terms into her poem, "Departures in May" -- a poem that uses the language of geometry to vivify the presence of loss, death and other dark forces.
Departures in May by Sarah Glaz
Big things crush, inside the brain,
like plaster of Paris on stone;
a taste of splintered metal;
terra-cotta hardness of heart's desire.
Statues motionless
at railroad depots,
proclaim imitation as life.
Mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz weaves mathematical terms into her poem, "Departures in May" -- a poem that uses the language of geometry to vivify the presence of loss, death and other dark forces.
Departures in May by Sarah Glaz
Big things crush, inside the brain,
like plaster of Paris on stone;
a taste of splintered metal;
terra-cotta hardness of heart's desire.
Statues motionless
at railroad depots,
proclaim imitation as life.
Labels:
arcs,
curve,
Euclid,
infinity,
mathematics,
poem,
Sarah Glaz
Saturday, January 3, 2015
The Role of Zero
In mathematics, as in poetry, multiple meanings are common and create power for the language. For example, the number 0 is an idempotent element, an additive identity, a multiplicative annihilator -- and it also plays the role of something that may represent nothing.
In Dorothea Tanning's poem below -- I found it at poets.org -- zero takes on still another of its roles, that of place-holder -- as in the numbers 101 and 5000, for example.
Zero by Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012)
Now that legal tender has
lost its tenderness,
and its very legality
is so often in question.
it may be time to consider
the zero--
long rows of them.
empty, black circles in clumps
of three,
In Dorothea Tanning's poem below -- I found it at poets.org -- zero takes on still another of its roles, that of place-holder -- as in the numbers 101 and 5000, for example.
Zero by Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012)
Now that legal tender has
lost its tenderness,
and its very legality
is so often in question.
it may be time to consider
the zero--
long rows of them.
empty, black circles in clumps
of three,
Labels:
decimal place,
Dorothea Tanning,
Graywolf Press,
mathematics,
place-holder,
poem,
poetry,
Poets.org,
zero
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Be someone TO COUNT ON in 2015
By any means of counting,
the number of incarcerated persons in the United States
is TOO LARGE
and the proportion of prisoners with BLACK SKIN
is TOO GREAT
and there is TOO MUCH VIOLENCE and DEATH in our prisons.
and there is TOO MUCH VIOLENCE and DEATH in our prisons.
To the voice of the retired warden of Huntsville Prison
(Texas death chamber) by Averill Curdy
Until wolf-light I will count my sheep,
Adumbrated, uncomedic, as they are.
One is perdu, two, qualm, three
Is sprawl, four, too late,
Labels:
2015,
Averill Curdy,
count,
distance,
mathematics,
poem,
Poetry Foundation,
prison,
RSVP,
violence
Saturday, December 6, 2014
A scientist writes of scientists
Wilkes-Barre poet Richard Aston is many-faceted -- a teacher, an engineer, a textbook author, a technical writer. And Aston writes of those whose passion he admires-- in his latest collection, Valley Voices (Foothills Publishing, 2012) we meet laborers, many of them miners from the Wyoming Valley where he makes his home. Aston also writes of scientists and mathematicians -- and he has given permission for me to offer below his poems that feature Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, and Galileo Galilei. With the mind of a scientist and the rhythms of poetry, Aston brings to us clear visions of these past lives.
Scientist by Richard Aston
It took more than a figure, face, skin, and hair
for me to become Marie Curie,
wife of simple, smiling, selective, Pierre
who could recognize — because he was one — my genius.
Scientist by Richard Aston
It took more than a figure, face, skin, and hair
for me to become Marie Curie,
wife of simple, smiling, selective, Pierre
who could recognize — because he was one — my genius.
Labels:
center,
clock,
Galileo Galilei,
gravity,
idea,
Isaac Newton,
Marie Curie,
pendulum,
poem,
poet,
poetry,
Richard Aston,
scientist
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Geometry of Love
A couple of weeks ago my "Google Alert" linked me to a posting of a science poem concerning "the geometry of love." The posting -- at The Finch and Pea -- is a poem that is both elegant and precise (and one that has been included in the anthology, Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics, that Sarah Glaz and I collected and edited several years ago). Here it is:
The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell (England, 1621-1678)
My love is of a birth as rare
As ‘tis for object strange and high;
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility.
The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell (England, 1621-1678)
My love is of a birth as rare
As ‘tis for object strange and high;
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility.
Labels:
Andrew Marvell,
angle,
conjunction,
geometry,
infinite,
mathematics,
parallel,
planisphere,
poem,
union
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Composite or Prime?
Her age
is 9.
Is that 9
composite
or prime?
Labels:
composite,
factor,
Franny Vergo,
grandchildren,
math,
poem,
prime
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Poetry from the words of Lord Kelvin
Do not imagine that mathematics
is hard and crabbed, and repulsive
to common sense.
It is merely the etherealization
of common sense.
Labels:
common sense,
Lord Kelvin,
mathematics,
measure,
numbers,
poem
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Tomorrow is Halloween
Typing Halloween in this blog's SEARCH Box will lead you to a 2010 posting of "Ghost Stories Written" -- an algebra-related poem by Charles Simic; this Poetry Foundation link will lead to a host of other seasonal poems.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Dimensions of Discovery
Along the one-dimensional straight line
there are points and segments
but no curves or squares.
there are points and segments
and squares and spheres.
there are points and segments
but no curves or squares.
In the flat plane of two dimensions
there are points and segments
and circles and squares.
In the vast space of three dimensions there are points and segments
and squares and spheres.
In a space of four dimensions
there is more than
we can imagine.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Taken out of context . . .
Sometimes good lines fit so well into their poems that their individual merits go unrecognized. And then, taken out of context, they can lead lives of their own. Here is a start for a collection of such lines.
From Poets.org here are two lines from "Ceriserie" by Joshua Clover:
Mathematics: Everyone rolling dice and flinging Fibonacci, going to the opera, counting everything.
Fire: The number between four and five.
From Poets.org here are two lines from "Ceriserie" by Joshua Clover:
Mathematics: Everyone rolling dice and flinging Fibonacci, going to the opera, counting everything.
Fire: The number between four and five.
Labels:
counting,
Fibonacci,
five,
four,
Heather Green,
Joshua Clover,
Lana Turner,
poem,
right angle,
zero
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Clearing the Air with a Poem
Every poem has a climate -- a collection of emotional tones that overlay and underlay its words. Today -- as the U.N. meets in NY to discuss the future climate of our planet -- I have been looking for mathy poems with a climate of advocacy, verses that let the world know that we must, soon and vigorously, take action to keep our earth habitable.
One of the things I found is a poem (involving a couple of numbers and mathy words) by Simon Armitage that is printed on material that cleanses the air around it by absorbing pollutants. A small photo from the website of Sheffield University is shown below -- and I urge you to follow the Sheffield link for the story of the poem and this link to see the full poem more clearly and the story behind it. Here is Armitage's opening stanza.
One of the things I found is a poem (involving a couple of numbers and mathy words) by Simon Armitage that is printed on material that cleanses the air around it by absorbing pollutants. A small photo from the website of Sheffield University is shown below -- and I urge you to follow the Sheffield link for the story of the poem and this link to see the full poem more clearly and the story behind it. Here is Armitage's opening stanza.
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.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Hypertext poetry
We computer-screen readers all know hypertext; when we read along in Wikipedia or some other online document and come across an underlined term whose font color is light blue -- at such a point we may decide to keep on reading as if we had not noticed the light blue "hyperlink," or we may locate our cursor on that text, click our mouse, and link to a new screen of visual information.
My first encounter with hypertext poetry was the work of Stephanie Strickland -- in her 1999 love poem, "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot," available at this link. If you, however, are someone who is not yet comfortably familiar with hypertext poetry, I invite you to gain some experience with hyperlinked reading via a prose essay -- reading it first as a traditional essay and then exploring ways that hypertext can vary the experience of reading.
My first encounter with hypertext poetry was the work of Stephanie Strickland -- in her 1999 love poem, "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot," available at this link. If you, however, are someone who is not yet comfortably familiar with hypertext poetry, I invite you to gain some experience with hyperlinked reading via a prose essay -- reading it first as a traditional essay and then exploring ways that hypertext can vary the experience of reading.
Labels:
ballad,
electronic literature,
hyperlink,
hypertext,
poem,
poetry,
Stephanie Strickland
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Changing colors, counting syllables
Changing Colors
by JoAnne Growney
Blue
yoyo --
awkwardly
stopping-starting,
rising-plummeting,
seeking self-control. Please,
mother-friend-lover-child, don't
pull string. Let me collect myself.
I lift myself to the treetops,
soar with the golden eagle,
find rest on fleecy clouds.
My orb embraces
everybody --
powerful,
yellow
sun.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Squaring the Circle
Reminding us of the ancient unsolvable problem that so many attempted, the July/August 2014 issue of Poetry Magazine contains "Squaring the Circle," a poem by Philip Fried. Here are the opening lines; please follow the Poetry Magazine link above to enjoy the full poem.
from Squaring the Circle by Philip Fried
It's a little-known fact that God's headgear --
A magician's collapsible silk top hat,
When viewed from Earth, from the bottom up
Is, sub specie aeternitatis,
A pluperfect halo, both circle and square,
. . .
from Squaring the Circle by Philip Fried
It's a little-known fact that God's headgear --
A magician's collapsible silk top hat,
When viewed from Earth, from the bottom up
Is, sub specie aeternitatis,
A pluperfect halo, both circle and square,
. . .
Two previous posts that also consider the circle-squaring problem include 10 May 2010 and 21 April 2010.
Labels:
circle,
mathematics,
Philip Fried,
poem,
POETRY Magazine,
problem,
square,
squaring the circle,
unsolvable
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Divided selves, some of them savvy
For social connections, it is desirable not to be pegged as a member of an outcast group. And thus a mathematician is likely to have at least two selves -- one who lives in the world of mathematics and another separate social self that negotiates that rest-of-the-world where many fear and shun mathematics. I found a situation somewhat similar when I studied at Hunter College in Manhattan: I needed a separate self who negotiated the city. The problem-solving farm girl who knew small towns well and big cities slightly seemed better equipped to adapt to city conversations than her fellow students could chat about anything west of the Hudson. How many hundred miles must you drive to get to Pennsylvania? they wondered. (The Delaware River boundary of PA is about 75 miles west of the George Washington Bridge.)
In this vein, I present a poem that focuses on the country vs city divide -- and it involves a square look and a number.
Green Market, New York by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
In this vein, I present a poem that focuses on the country vs city divide -- and it involves a square look and a number.
Green Market, New York by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
Labels:
divided,
Hunter College,
Julia Spicher Kasdorf,
mathematics,
New York,
Pennsylvania,
poem,
poetry,
problem,
square
Sunday, August 3, 2014
A math prof's lament
The mathematical connection for this poem is the fact that it was inspired by regrets for a missed opportunity in a mathematics class -- an opportunity missed by me and thus by one of my students. There are so many ways to be wrong!
Lament of a Professor
at the End of the Spring Semester by JoAnne Growney
I took an extra step to bridge the gap
between us, blind to your matching backward step.
We've moved in tandem until I'm angry
at you, and at me — I thought you needed
lenience, but reprimands instead
would have changed the direction of our cadence
and given you a chance to lead the dance.
A poem about another of my students, "The Prince of Algebra" is available here. And this link will take you to the poems in my collection, My Dance is Mathematics (Paper Kite Press, 2006).
Lament of a Professor
at the End of the Spring Semester by JoAnne Growney
I took an extra step to bridge the gap
between us, blind to your matching backward step.
We've moved in tandem until I'm angry
at you, and at me — I thought you needed
lenience, but reprimands instead
would have changed the direction of our cadence
and given you a chance to lead the dance.
A poem about another of my students, "The Prince of Algebra" is available here. And this link will take you to the poems in my collection, My Dance is Mathematics (Paper Kite Press, 2006).
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