Monday, June 7, 2010
Celebrate Martin Gardner (1914-2010)
π goes on and on
And e is just as cursed
I wonder, how does π begin
When its digits are reversed?
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Martin Gardner, again
Monday, October 20, 2014
Martin Gardner collected poems
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Celebrate Martin Gardner
On Sunday, April 15, Professor Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University will lecture on “Poetry, Drumming, and Mathematics.” Bhargava won the Fields Medal, which is one of the highest honors for a mathematician. More information about the annual gatherings for Gardner is available here.
In closing, noting the coming of spring with its April celebration of both mathematics and poetry, here are a few lines of verse -- the opening stanza from an old poem of mine entitled "Time."
The clock goes round --
making time a circle
rather than a line.
Each year's return to spring
layers time on time.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
I miss you, Martin Gardner
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Twelveness -- a Fibonacci poem from G4G
A several-time participant in G4G is Kate Jones of Kadon Enterprises, an organization devoted to the development and distribution of Game Puzzles. Below in a Fibonacci poem created for the 2016 G4G Jones tells the history of her game-puzzle enterprise.
A pentomino is a plane geometric figure formed by joining five equal squares edge to edge.
There are twelve differently-shaped pentominos; this number gives the title of Jones's poem.
TWELVENESS by Kate Jones
1 Martin
1 Gardner
2 Long ago
3 Wrote about pentominoes,
5 Brainchild of young Solomon Golomb,
8 The coolest recmath set in all the world.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Snowballs -- growing/shrinking lines
Friday, April 30, 2021
Polyform Puzzles -- presented in verse
Many math-loving folks gather periodically at meetings called G4G (Gatherings for Gardner) to celebrate the life and contributions of Martin Gardner (1914-2010) -- a versatile author whom I know best from his "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American -- a column that often connected math and poetry.
Here is a link to the YouTube channel for G4G Celebrations -- a place to view presentations of ideas that honor the spirit of Martin Gardner. For one of the recent meetings of G4G (online due to Covid), graphic artist and designer of recreational mathematics puzzles, Kate Jones, offered a visual and poetic presentation entitled A Periodic Table of polyform puzzles.
This is the 3rd slide of Jones' presentation, "A Periodic Table of polyform puzzles" |
This link leads to a pdf of the 29 slides of Jones' presentation and this link leads to a 24-minute PowerPoint recording of the production; eventually this event will be available on the YouTube Channel noted above. Jones describes this creation in this way: It’s like a very condensed book on the subject; using rhymed couplets allowed for even more compact delivery of the information. She adds: at the gamepuzzles website, the various individual items in the puzzles can be seen more simply.
Here is a link to an earlier posting in this blog that includes a Fibonacci poem by Jones -- created for the 2016 meeting of G4G.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Math, Magic, Mystery -- and so few women
π goes on and on
And e is just as cursed
I wonder, how does π begin
When its digits are reversed?
Monday, February 15, 2016
How Old Is the Rose-Red City?
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?"
Monday, October 21, 2024
"Celebration of the Mind" Day -- October 21
Established in honor of math-popularizer Martin Gardner (1914-2010), Celebration of the Mind Day occurs on October 21 each year. Lots of interesting information about Gardner and the celebration-day may be found at this link. This link leads to previous postings in this blog that feature Gardner and his work. Not a poet, Gardner called himself "an occasional versifier" and here is an example:
π goes on and on
And e is just as cursed
I wonder, how does π begin
When its digits are reversed?
For an array of mathy connections that celebrate the mind and stretch it, explore the links offered above!
Monday, January 3, 2011
From 2010 -- titles and dates of posts
A scroll through the 12 months of titles below may lead you to topics and poets/poems of interest. Also helpful may be the SEARCH box at the top of the right-hand column; there you may enter names or terms that you would like to find herein.
Dec 31 The year ends -- and we go on . . .
Dec 30 Mathematicians are NOT entitled to arrogance
Dec 28 Teaching Numbers
Dec 26 Where are the Women?
Dec 21 A Square for the Season
Dec 20 "M" is for Mathematics and . . .
Saturday, January 3, 2015
2014 (and prior) -- titles, dates of posts
Dec 30 Be someone TO COUNT ON in 2015
Dec 28 A Fractal Poem
Dec 25 A thousand Christmas trees
Dec 24 The gift of a poem
Dec 20 The Girl Who Loved Triangles
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics -- latest issue
Every six months a wonderful treasure appears in my email-box -- an announcement, with links, to the latest issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. Here is a link to the Table of Contents for this latest (July 2022) issue.
Gathered and edited by Mark Huber (Claremont McKenna College) and Gizem Karaali (Pomona College) this open access journal contains a variety of articles and fiction and poetry. With topics such as "Math in the Time of COVID" and "A Report about a Speaker Series Connecting Mathematics and Religion," the journal offers both depth and variety as its contents explore the humanistic aspects of mathematics. Following more than twenty articles, we come to these poems:
Monday, March 18, 2019
Looking back . . . titles, links to previous posts
- March 13 An Interview of/by a Mathy Poet
- March 11 Celebrate Pi-Day on 3.14
- March 6 Celebrate Math-Women with Poems!
- March 4 Math in 17 Syllables
- Solving for X, Searching for LIFE
- Stories of Black Mathematicians (event postponed)
- All Numbers are Interesting . . .
- George Washington, cherry tree, lifespan . . .
- Musical sounds of math words -- in a CENTO
- If 2017 was a poem title . . .
- Mathematics and Valentine's Day
- Speed flunking math . . . NO, NO!
- Quantum Lyrics -- Poems
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Symmetric 4 x 4 square
C U B E
U G L Y
B L U E
E Y E S
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Mathy Limericks
Limericks by Kate Jones
There once was an artist supreme
Whose geometry had a rare scheme.
Tessellations and creatures
And impossible features. . .
MC Escher created an infinite dream.