Most of Martin Gardner's fans are avid puzzler's -- my connection with him is also one of admiration (he was a thoughtful person who was a master at making connections among disparate things) but we are connected via poetry, including topics such as counting all possible rhyme schemes for a given stanza and the constraint-based poetry of OULIPO . . ..
Gardner (1914-2010) was not a poet -- although he penned a quatrain or two, his great contribution was collecting and publicizing parodies and puzzle-verses by others. Here is a link to Gardner's collection of poetic parodies, and here is a link to many of Gardner's puzzles, including the stanza below, "How Old is the Rose-Red City?"
Showing posts with label puzzle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puzzle. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2016
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Generalized Pythagorean Theorem--a visual poem?
While thinking about my December 13 posting featuring work by Richard Kostelanetz -- visual poetry with numbers -- I was browsing a fascinating book by Ivan Moscovich, The Puzzle Universe: A History of Mathematics in 315 Puzzles (Firefly Books, 2015) and came to the following diagram. I offer it as a visual poem.
In addition to the squares, what other areas constructed on the sides of a right triangle may be correctly summed to give a third area of the same shape? |
Labels:
history,
Ivan Moscovich,
puzzle,
Pythagorean Theorem,
visual poetry
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Journal of Math in the Arts features Poetry
A special issue of the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts entitled "Poetry and Mathematics" is now available online at this link. An introduction by guest editor Sarah Glaz is available (for free download) here. In this opening piece, one of the items that Glaz includes is her own translation of a math-puzzle poem from Bhaskara's (1114-1185) Lilavati that is charming. I offer it here:
Ten times the square root of a flock
of geese, seeing the clouds collect,
flew towards lake Manasa, one-eighth
took off for the Sthalapadmini forest.
But unconcerned, three couples frolicked
in the water amongst a multitude of
lotus flowers. Please tell, sweet girl,
how many geese were in the flock.
Ten times the square root of a flock
of geese, seeing the clouds collect,
flew towards lake Manasa, one-eighth
took off for the Sthalapadmini forest.
But unconcerned, three couples frolicked
in the water amongst a multitude of
lotus flowers. Please tell, sweet girl,
how many geese were in the flock.
Monday, October 14, 2013
"My Proteins"
The mysteries of science are sometimes explored in poems and, in this vein, I was delighted to find "My Proteins" by Jane Hirshfield (a poet whose work I like and admire) on page 56 of the September 16, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. As she explores the riddles of who she is and where she came from, she has these lines-with-numbers (stanzas 3 and 4):
from My Proteins by Jane Hirshfield
Ninety percent of my cells, they have discovered,
are not my own person,
they are other beings inside me.
As ninety-six percent of my life is not my life.
. . .
Look for the entire poem; and enjoy!
Another exploration of what the self is and isn't may be found in Hirshfield's "My Skeleton" -- today's Poem-A-Day selection from Poets.org. Jane Hirshfield's poem "Mathematics" is available here in my post for 23 June 2010.
from My Proteins by Jane Hirshfield
Ninety percent of my cells, they have discovered,
are not my own person,
they are other beings inside me.
As ninety-six percent of my life is not my life.
. . .
Look for the entire poem; and enjoy!
Another exploration of what the self is and isn't may be found in Hirshfield's "My Skeleton" -- today's Poem-A-Day selection from Poets.org. Jane Hirshfield's poem "Mathematics" is available here in my post for 23 June 2010.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Puzzle poems from Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker (1731 - 1806) was a free African American mathematician and almanac author -- also an astronomer, surveyor, and farmer. (I learned of his work through my friend Greg Coxson, an engineer, teacher, and fan of mathematical poetry -- and Coxson learned of Banneker through a school project of his son.) Beyond building a wooden clock and helping to lay out the borders of Washington, DC, Banneker predicted the 1789 solar eclipse and included rhyming math puzzles in his almanac. Coxson introduced me to a fine website, established by by John F. Mahoney of Washington, DC's Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, entitled The Mathematical Puzzles of Benjamin Banneker.
Banneker's Almanack had an eclectic mix of astronomy/astrology, medical advice, weather prediction, and other things. Here's a math-problem-poem from that Almanack -- found, along with others, at Mahoney's site:
Banneker's Almanack had an eclectic mix of astronomy/astrology, medical advice, weather prediction, and other things. Here's a math-problem-poem from that Almanack -- found, along with others, at Mahoney's site:
Labels:
Benjamin Banneker,
Greg Coxson,
John Mahoney,
mathematical,
mathematician,
poem,
proportion,
puzzle
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Following Euler in Koenigsberg
The Köenigsberg Bridges have an important link to mathematics -- for mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) took a legendary Köenigsberg puzzle-pastime as the seed for development of a new branch of mathematics, graph theory (which is now generally included under the umbrella of combinatorics). As the story goes, Köenigsberg residents made a Sunday recreation of trying to tour their city, crossing each of its seven bridges exactly once. This problem is perhaps particularly fascinating because of its impossibility -- a dilemma cause by the existence of odd (rather than even) numbers of bridges between the parts of this water-separated city.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Puzzles, puzzlers, and parody
For lots of fun, go to plus online magazine at this link to find a poem that requires a knight's tour of a chess board for you to unscramble its words and read its eight lines.
Labels:
Euclid,
Greg Coxson,
Hiawatha,
Knight's tour,
Lewis Carroll,
logic,
Longfellow,
mathematics,
nonsense,
parody,
plus,
poem,
puzzle,
sense
Thursday, October 21, 2010
I miss you, Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (1914-2010), featured also in my June 6 posting, would have been 96 years old today--October 21, 2010. All over the world lovers of mathematical puzzles have taken time today to celebrate Gardner's puzzling--and the ways it stimulated their own. Although Gardner disclaimed poetic gifts, he popularized puzzle poems written by others -- and he introduced the poetry strategies of the OULIPO (see March 25, August 5, and August 23 postings) to American readers. Here is a puzzle poem, by an unknown author, included in Gardner's Puzzles from Other Worlds (Vintage, 1984) and in Strange Attractors (A K Peters, 2008).
Monday, March 29, 2010
"Mathematical" Limericks
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
Labels:
concentricity,
definition,
Edward Lear,
Leigh Mercer,
limerick,
nonsense,
OEDILF,
Philip Heafford,
puzzle,
Randall Munroe,
recursive
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