Among my favorite mathematical ideas are the seeming-paradoxes -- notions that require a twist and a turn and a leap before one can say "aha." Using a symbol for "nothing" is one of those leap-requiring ideas. I don't remember when I first understood zero, but I have enjoyed watching my children -- and now grandchildren -- grapple with ideas of things that are absent rather than present.
Here, from Hailey Leithauser, is a poem that celebrates the cipher.
Showing posts with label zero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zero. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Math lyrics -- Lehrer et al
Mathematicians with poetic tendency often use their word-talents to write song-lyrics rather than poems; a master of the song-writing art was/is Tom Lehrer. As an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1940s, Lehrer majored in mathematics; he is best known for songs he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. Here are Lehrer's lyrics for "The Derivative Song" -- written to be sung to the tune of "There'll Be Some Changes Made" (by Benton Overstreet, with original lyrics by Billy Higgins).
Labels:
Bloomsburg University,
Bob Dylan,
delta,
delta x,
derivative,
dy/dx,
function,
Peter Cameron,
Tom Lehrer,
zero
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Thinking about Thinking
The question of what it means to think is never far from my focus -- and is particularly on my mind during these days that the computer Watson is competing on the TV game show, Jeopardy. Here is a poem I like a lot -- "New Math" by Cole Swensen -- in which the poet (writing more than 20 years ago) considers the limits of computation (and whether it could aid persons unable to recognize faces).
Labels:
circle,
Cole Swensen,
computation,
compute,
computer,
equation,
Jeopardy,
math,
numerical,
point,
prosopagnosia,
Watson,
zero
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Dividing by Zero
Fairy godmothers have their magic wands and mathematician have division by zero as a way to make the impossible happen -- for example, we can show that 2 equals 3:
Labels:
Alvin White,
divide,
division,
equation,
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics,
magic,
nothing,
Robin Chapman,
zero
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Can we trust numbers?
Poet Lucia Perillo was honored Monday evening, December 13 at the Library of Congress -- as her collection Inseminating the Elephant won the 2010 Bobbit National Prize for Poetry. It was my good fortune to be there to hear her read. She is direct and upretentious, tough and witty. An evening of good poetry read well. Perillo has an undergraduate degree in wildlife management and her deep understandings of the natural world are evident in her poems. In an earlier collection, we find "In Light of the Absent Constant," a Perillo poem of science and number:
Labels:
Lucia Perillo,
mathematics,
minus,
number,
one,
poetry,
sums,
zero
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Fib -- a form that gathers strength
The "Fib" is a poetry form in which the numbers of syllables per line follow the pattern of the Fibonacci numbers. (See also April 19 and April 29 postings.) The sequence of Fibonacci numbers starts with 0 and 1 and then each successive Fibonacci number is the sum of the two preceding. Thus, the non-zero members of the sequence are:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . .
Poet Athena Kildegaard's collection Red Momentum (Red Dragonfly Press, 2006 ) consists entirely of Fibonacci poems. The following samples from Kildegaard's collection illustrate the way that increasing line lengths can build to dramatic effect. From a simple start, complexity grows.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . .
Poet Athena Kildegaard's collection Red Momentum (Red Dragonfly Press, 2006 ) consists entirely of Fibonacci poems. The following samples from Kildegaard's collection illustrate the way that increasing line lengths can build to dramatic effect. From a simple start, complexity grows.
Labels:
Athena Kildegaard,
FIB,
Fibonacci,
mathematics,
one,
poetry,
zero
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
A Lemma by Constance Reid
Constance Reid (1918-2010), died on October 14. Sister of a mathematician (Julia Robinson), Reid wrote first about life in World War II factories that supported the war effort and then, later, several biographies (including one of her sister) and other books about mathematics. Kenneth Rexroth's poem "A Lemma by Constance Reid" (offered below) is based on material appearing in Reid's popular book From Zero to Infinity: What Makes Numbers Interesting (Thomas Y Crowell, 1955). Reid is known for the enthusiasm and clarity with which she presented mathematical ideas--seeking to attract and to satisfy non-mathematical readers.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Writing poetry like mathematics
In an article about the Chilean mathematician and poet Nicanor Parra, Paul M Pearson says, : "Parra almost wrote poetry like he would a mathematical theorem using an extreme 'economy of language' with 'no metaphors, no literary figures.' " Today I present work by Nicanor Parra and Richard Aston, both of whom write their poetry with the same economy and care that are used when writing mathematics.
Labels:
arithmetic mean,
economy,
mathematician,
mathematics,
Nicanor Parra,
nothing,
plane,
poet,
poetry,
power,
precision,
Richard Aston,
Sisyphus,
whole,
zero
Monday, October 4, 2010
"The Reckoning" by M. Sorescu (Romania,1936-96)
Works by poet and playwright Marin Sorescu (1936-1996) continue to be popular with Romanian readers--and he is one of the most-frequently translated of Romanian poets. In "The Reckoning" we see and hear his irony twisting among images chosen from mathematics.
Labels:
Andrea Deletant,
Brenda Walker,
carry,
line,
Marin Sorescu,
mathematical,
mathematics,
one,
parallel,
poetry,
Romania,
Romanian,
sum,
two,
zero
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Is mathematics discovered -- or invented?
The issue of whether mathematics is invented or discovered is posed often. Less frequently, queries as to where poetry falls in these categories. Perhaps individual answers to these questions depend on how each of us, from the inside, views the workings of the mind. Here we have, from poet (and math teacher) Amy Uyematsu,"The Invention of Mathematics."
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Excitement in mathematics classrooms
Poems from three women illustrate a range of emotional content in the mathematics classroom: Rita Dove's "Geometry" captures the excitement of a new mathematical discovery. Sue VanHattum's "Desire in a Math Class" tells of undercurrents of emotion beneath the surface in a formal classroom setting. Marion Deutsche Cohen's untitled poem [I stand up there and dance] offers a glimpse of what may go on in a teacher's mind as she performs for her class.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Snowballs -- growing/shrinking lines
Today's post explores poetic structures called snowballs developed by the Oulipo (see also March 25 posting) and known to many through the writings of Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner (1914-2010). TIME Magazine's issue for January 10, 1977 had an article entitled "Science: Perverbs and Snowballs" that celebrated both Gardner and the inventive structures of the Oulipo. Oulipian Harry Mathews' "Liminal Poem" (to the right) is a snowball (growing and then melting) dedicated to Gardner. The lines in Mathew's poem increase or decrease by one letter from line to line. Below left, a poem by John Newman illustrates the growth-only snowball.
Labels:
Dominique Fitzpatrick-O'Dinn,
Harry Mathews,
John Newman,
Martin Gardner,
numbers,
one,
Oulipo,
snowball,
zero
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The infinitude of ecstacy -- a la Israel Lewis
Israel Lewis is the pen name of a polymath who earned his living as a scientist and is a writer in his retirement. His webpage offers a variety of his creations--many of them permeated with mathematics.
Labels:
Aleph Null,
ecstacy,
Georg Cantor,
infinite,
infinities,
infinitude,
Israel Lewis,
one,
transfinite,
zero
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