Sunday, January 31, 2016

A sonnet for Napoleon's Theorem

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     In geometry, Napoleon's theorem ( often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769–1821) states that if equilateral triangles are cons...
Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Rabbis should learn to solve quadratics

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     Thanks to mathemagician Colm Mulcahy who connected me with poet Lisa Dordal -- and thanks to her for permission to offer these lines,...
Monday, January 25, 2016

Tartaglia solving the cubic -- in verse

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     Mathematical historians now credit both Cardano and Tartaglia with the formula to solve cubic equations, referring to it as the "...
2 comments:
Saturday, January 23, 2016

Not good at math . . .

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     Connecticut poet Joan Cannon is a senior who laments her lin gering anxiety over mathematics in her poem, "Humility," below...
Thursday, January 21, 2016

Math Anxiety

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     Recent comments from a friend describing anxiety that seems to freeze his attempts to understand and use a new mathematical concept hav...
Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Soon it will be February -- and Valentine's Day

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     Looking back :  on February 12, 2011 I posted math-poetry suggestions for Valentine's Day at this link: Loving a mathematician (Va...
Sunday, January 17, 2016

Poetry from a math teacher's son

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     In an earlier post I have noted how effectively mathematicians and their mathematics may be described by poets who are in the same fam...
Tuesday, January 12, 2016

A sonnet for W.R.Hamilton

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      Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) was also a poet (see, for example, this sonnet in a prior posting (13 October...
Friday, January 8, 2016

The world is round . . . or flat!

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British poet Wendy Cope frequently includes edgy humor in her poems ( s he is, indeed, a prizewinner in light verse ) -- and I like that. ...
3 comments:
Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Counting those who grieve . . .

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Each day's email brings me a Poem-a-Day from Poets.org and today's selection by Matthew Olzmann considers the tragedies from gun-...
Saturday, January 2, 2016

Math is Brewing . . .

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For one of my granddaughters who likes poems, I recently purchased If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand:  Poems about School by Ka...

2015 (and prior) -- titles, dates, links for posts

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If you wi sh to easily BROWSE p ast po stings . . . Scroll down to find titles and dates and links to post ings in 2015.   OR follow...
Thursday, December 31, 2015

Precision leads to poetry . . .

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As the year ends, a quote from one of my once-favorite authors, Don DeLillo (in correspondence with David Foster Wallace -- whose Infinite ...
Monday, December 28, 2015

Can a woman learn science (or mathematics)?

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It is not a new idea that women do not have scientific aptitude, that teaching them requires special accommodation.  Here, in a poem by one ...
Thursday, December 24, 2015

And now welcome Christmas . . .

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Let us sing . . . (a version of)  The Twelve Days of Christmas           The twelfth day of Christmas.           My true love gave to ...
Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Let us not forget . . .

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At this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, many are without shelter -- and are cold.  Let us think of them  -- as Cecil Day-Lewis (190...
Sunday, December 20, 2015

Who put the pie in Pythagoras?

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Irish poet and physicist Iggy McGovern has written both humorous and serious verse.  Today we have lines from him that startle and amuse -...
Friday, December 18, 2015

A student writes poetry for a math class . . .

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A recent fun experience for me has been correspondence with Melanie Simms , a poet and math student at Pennsylvania's Bloomsburg Univers...
Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Generalized Pythagorean Theorem--a visual poem?

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While thinking about my December 13 posting featuring work by Richard Kostelanetz -- visual poetry with numbers -- I was browsing a fascina...
1 comment:
Sunday, December 13, 2015

Visual poems with numbers

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     I have a good friend who does not care for the sorts of poetry that are written today.  When I asked what he likes he cited " When...
Friday, December 11, 2015

Alphamath - poetry built on 4, 8

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Since the late 1960s Toronto poet Victor Coleman has been energetically committed to innovated poetic practices.  A fine introduction to th...
Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Colorful mathematics for your smartphone

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     "Bhaskara II (1114-1185) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He composed the Siddhanta Siromani , a treatise in four parts...
Sunday, December 6, 2015

This blog (then and now) and Pascal

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     When I began this blog in 2010, I imagined up to 100 postings -- I saw it as a way to share math-related poetry that I had written an...
Thursday, December 3, 2015

Which hat? (from Slovenia)

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     For a long time I have highly valued the work of Eastern European poets -- including Wislawa Szymborska , Miroslav Holub , Nichita Stan...
Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Are we speaking of "mathematics" or "poetry"?

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     This week started with the excitement of an email message from Evelyn Lamb with a link to her Scientific American blog where she crea...
Monday, November 30, 2015

Sustainability needs the arts AND mathematics . . .

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The following poem is by Erica Jolly -- an Australian poet and retired teacher who is working hard to have the arts and the sciences integr...
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Thanksgiving, 2015

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Thinking toward Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, I am grateful for  --  in addition to my children and grandchildren who will gather --  all ...
Monday, November 23, 2015

Quoting Isaac Newton . . . . a "found" poem

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     I do not know what      I may appear to the world;      but to myself I seem to have been      only like a boy playing on the seash...
Thursday, November 19, 2015

Axiom: A Mathematics of Poetry

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Today in a Facebook posting by Susanne Pumpluen  I learned of Discov-her , an online journal  featuring stories about women in Scienc...
Monday, November 16, 2015

Encouragement from fathers, a second view

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     Despite the importance of fathers' encouragement (as noted in my post on 13 November ), some women oppose their fathers' views....
Friday, November 13, 2015

Encouragement from fathers

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     It was my observation as a professor in a mostly-male mathematics department that the men who joined me in supporting opportunities for...
Monday, November 9, 2015

Limericks for Hedy Lamarr

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     When seeking to draft a poem quickly, it is useful to have some sort of pattern to follow -- a pattern helping to dictate word choice. ...