Saturday, July 31, 2021

Favorite -- most visited -- Posts

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Because this blog has more than a thousand posts, spread over more than eleven years of posting, finding best information can be challenging...
Friday, July 23, 2021

Excitement from Finding a Proof . . . and then . . .

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Recently I have been revisiting the poems that Sarah Glaz and I collected for the anthology, Strange Attractors:  Poems of Love and Mathemat...
Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Love and Tensor Algebra

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     Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was a Polish science fiction writer whose works have been widely translated.  Here is a poem of his (found h...
Monday, July 19, 2021

Distance Melts . . . between math and poetry . . .

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      One of my early math-poetry connections was with applied mathematician John Lew (1934-2006) who contributed often to the Humanistic ...
Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Mathematics Humor -- in rhyming verse . . .

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      At the website KOMPLEXIFY! a mathematician named Travis celebrates his love of mathematics in various ways, including humor and verse...
1 comment:
Monday, July 12, 2021

Limericks about Graphs -- Prize-Winners

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     A couple of weeks ago I posted information about prize-winning poetry in the Writing portion of the 2021 MoMath Steven Strogatz Contes...
Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Picture a Mathematician . . . describe HER . . .

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     Mathematicians are not always white and nerdy and male . . . but, for the others who dare to specialize in science and mathematics, the...
Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Numbers keep track of memories . . .

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     Sometimes the specific nature of counting can help us, for a bit of time, to steer our thoughts for away from sadness.  Here is a poem ...
Thursday, July 1, 2021

Looking back . . . to previous posts . . .

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  BROWSE and ENJOY! Back in January 2020 I gathered a list of titles of previous posts and posted it here at this link .  And below I offer...
Monday, June 28, 2021

Math Communication with Poetry -- Strogatz Prize

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Recently I have learned -- through Mo-Math ( National Museum of Mathematics ) -- of the of the Steven H. Strogatz Prize -- recognizing hig...
Friday, June 25, 2021

One More Love Poem

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     Expressing love with mathematical terminology is beautifully done in "One More Love Poem" by  Dunya Mikhail   -- this poem wa...
Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Interpreting Khayyam -- in Rhyme

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     Eleventh century Persian scholar Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) is described by Wikipedia as a polymath -- he was a mathematician, astronome...
Monday, June 21, 2021

Putting CALCULUS into a poem . . .

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 Can our world be described using calculus?      The poem-a-day offering this morning (6/21/21) from poets.org gives me new ideas about de...
1 comment:
Thursday, June 17, 2021

Images of a Complex World

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     One of the treasures on my bookshelf is Images of a Complex World: The Art and Poetry of Chaos by University of Wisconsin poet Robin C...
Monday, June 14, 2021

Encryption and Love

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One of my recent book-acquisitions is The Woman who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone  -- a story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman who transitioned ...
Thursday, June 10, 2021

Every Seventeen Years . . .

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Millions of Brood X 17-year cicadas have recently emerged in the Washington, DC area and they are the subjects of laughter, fear, recipes, a...
Tuesday, June 8, 2021

A Life Made to Count

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     The title of this blog-post is part of a headline from The Washington Post -- a headline for a review by GW Professor Lisa Page   of a...
1 comment:
Friday, June 4, 2021

A Few Lines of Parody

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      Recently I re-found -- in my copy of The Mathematical Magpie by Clifton Fadiman (1904-1999)  (Simon and Schuster, 1962) -- these li...
Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Euclid and Barbie -- and attitudes toward math . . .

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     Teacher-poet-musician Glen Brown has shared with me his mathy poem that has for its epigraph a controversial line once spoken (back in...
Saturday, May 29, 2021

A Mathy Rhyme from Twitter

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When I have a bit of extra time, it is fun for me to visit Twitter (my postings may be found as JoAnne Growney @MathyPoems ) and to find i...
Wednesday, May 26, 2021

A Rhymer and an Analyst -- a Friendship

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     Several recent emails have turned my attention again to Irish mathematician (?and poet?) William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865).  Availabl...
2 comments:
Monday, May 24, 2021

What does CANCEL mean? -- some poetic wordplay!

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      Lawrence "Larry" Lesser is a professor in the Mathematical Sciences Department at the University of Texas in El Paso and a ...
1 comment:
Friday, May 21, 2021

MoMath Celebrates Limericks!

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     New York's Museum of Mathematics celebrated National Limerick Day on May 12 with an online program of contributors reading their m...
Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Reflecting on Pi . . .

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     A few months ago I got an email from  Adaobi Chiemelu , a Nigerian poet and spoken word artist who studied  studied mathematics at th...
Monday, May 17, 2021

Keeping Track of Chairs

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 The first steps in mathematics . . . COUNTING!       I grew up on a farm and keeping track by counting happened often -- counting chickens,...
Thursday, May 13, 2021

Mathematical Forms in Poetry . . .

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      During recent days, one of my special enjoyments has been finding time to read Marian Christie's blog -- a delightful collection o...
Monday, May 10, 2021

Mathy Jokes

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      In a recent search for funny mathy poems I have discovered the collection by G. Patrick Vennebush pictured below as well as a sequel ...
Thursday, May 6, 2021

Climate Concerns

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      Ideas become internalized when we WRITE about them -- and I encourage students AND all of us to write about climate change and efforts...
Monday, May 3, 2021

Celebrate Math-Women -- Celebrate AWM

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1    This 2    year's the 3    fiftieth 4    birthday of the 5    Association 6    for Women in Mathe- 7    matics.  Join celebrations -...
Friday, April 30, 2021

Polyform Puzzles -- presented in verse

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     Many math-loving folks gather periodically at meetings called  G4G (Gatherings for Gardner) to celebrate the life and contributions o...
1 comment:
Wednesday, April 28, 2021

A Visit to Mathland -- where Reason rules!

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Published in 1979 by PRIMARY PRESS, out of print -- try your library! Before purchasing this anthology (found at a math conference) I had ne...
Monday, April 26, 2021

Mean, Median, Mode -- and Poetry and Bananas!

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 A wonderful resource for mathy poems for students is  “ S.T.E.A.M. Powered Poetry Videos for Pk-8 ”  -- and I have recently connected there...
Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Earth Day -- are we the FINAL ones?

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Tomorrow (April 22) is Earth Day.  This worried poem is structured using The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. (Some explanatory notes fo...
Monday, April 19, 2021

Poetry by Math Students

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     Mathematics Teacher Lisa Winer ( St Andrews School , Boca Raton, FL) enjoys giving her students new sorts of learning experiences.  In ...
Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Parody with Limericks

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     A limerick is a five-line rhyming verse, usually humorous, often earthy and rude.  Various limericks have appeared previous postings i...
Monday, April 12, 2021

Pi-ku Contest in Australia -- deadline Two Pi Day

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     Using syllable counts to help to craft poems has been with us since the sonnet and this blog has often presented square poems and Fibs...
Wednesday, April 7, 2021

A Scientist's Math-Poetic Memoir

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     Madhur Anand is a poet and a professor of ecology and environmental science at the University of Guelph in Ontario – her work has been ...
Monday, April 5, 2021

Mathy Poets plan for 2021 BRIDGES Conference

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      The Annual BRIDGES Math-Art Conference will be virtual again this year (August 2-6, 2021) and mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz has dev...
Wednesday, March 31, 2021

2000 plastic bags in the stomach of a camel!

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     When creating a poem, I often find that first choosing a pattern of syllable counts can be very helpful in guiding me into careful word...
Monday, March 29, 2021

A Poetry Cube

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      Gregory Coxson , professor and researcher in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the US Naval Academy, is a supp...
Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Happy Birthday, Amalie "Emmy" Noether!

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      Emmy Noether (1882-1935) is one of my heroes -- and my first posting in this blog , on March 23, 2010, celebrates her -- as do a bunc...
1 comment:
Sunday, March 21, 2021

UNESCO World Poetry Day

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     TODAY, March 21 is UNESCO World Poetry Day:  click on this link for a wealth of information and poetry resources:  UNESCO Creative Citi...
Thursday, March 18, 2021

Probe the gaps between prime numbers . . .

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     Each issue of The New Yorker offers poetry, but seldom do the poems link to mathematics.  However, the issue for March 8, 2021 offers ...
Monday, March 15, 2021

Thoughtful Poetic Paradox . . .

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     Recently, looking through old piles, I found an article of mine that appeared almost twenty years ago in The Humanistic Mathematics Ne...
Thursday, March 11, 2021

MATH-GIRL gives us Pi

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     Sunday, 3/14, will be Pi-day and I celebrate here with a comment in Pilish from my imagined author MATH-GIRL.  And before the poetic w...
3 comments:
Monday, March 8, 2021

Internat'l Day of the Woman--Name 5 Math-Women!

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      Today, March 8, is International Day of the Woman for 2021.  I continue to consider the challenge that I heard offered lots of years...
1 comment:
Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Free Minds add, count . . . and . . .

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     Free Minds is an organization that uses books, creative writing, and peer support to awaken incarcerated and formerly incarcerated you...
Monday, March 1, 2021

Celebrating Math-Women -- Caroline Herschel

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      In the United States, March is National Women's History Month -- and today I am looking back to previous postings that celebrate a...
Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Filling my coffee cup . . .

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      When I am asked to give a poetry workshop that includes people who have not written poetry, I find that asking them to concentrate on ...
Monday, February 22, 2021

In the Space of Certain Dimensions

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Browsing at Poets.org I found this fascinating poem by Anne Tardos and she has give me permission to post it here.      NINE, 40       by ...
Thursday, February 18, 2021

Mathematician, astronomer, poet -- and female

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 An amazing woman -- Wang Zhenyi !      In this article in April Magazine , we can learn of her achievements:     Born in 1768 in a family ...
Monday, February 15, 2021

Measure the Skies

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     Born around 1753, Phillis Wheatley was the first enslaved black poet in America to publish a book.  Here is a stanza from her poem, ...