In my childhood home, numbers were used with care and precision. There would be teasing when I would use the adverb "too" --- as if when I said "I had to walk too far" I had tried to describe an unbounded distance, greater than any possible span. Now as an adult I continue to be cautious (and intrigued) with use of that word. And I am drawn to the uses of "too many" and "count" in the following poem from David Orr, poetry columnist for the New York Times Book Review.
The Chameleon by David Orr
Alone among the superheroes,
He failed to keep his life in balance.
Power Man, The Human Shark--they knew
To hold their days and nights in counterpoise,
Their twin selves divided together,
As a coin bears with ease its two faces.
Showing posts with label unbounded. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unbounded. Show all posts
Friday, April 25, 2014
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Counting grains of sand
Recently I have found online translations of several poems by Norwegian poet Rolf Jacobsen (1907-1994). His poem "Sand" reminded me of a recent conversation with a friend about the word "infinite." This friend said that he would use "all the grains of sand on the earth" as an example of an infinite collection. Though I disagreed, I also have found it is not at all uncommon for people to use "infinite" -- as my friend did -- as if it means "larger than I could possibly count." In Jacobsen's poem, the number of grains of sand is finite but also unbounded. Do you agree?
Labels:
finite,
infinite,
mathematics,
poetry,
Rolf Jacobsen,
total,
unbounded
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