Poems Taken from "An Evening of Mathematical Poetry

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal, Dec 1992

Published on 04/01/92

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Poems Taken from "An Evening of Mathematical Poetry

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal Poems Taken from "An Evening of Mathematical Poetr y " Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/hmnj Part of the Mathematics Commons, and the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation - Article 5 Held on January 10, /992 National Joint Mathematics Meetin gs Baltimore, Maryland ODE BY AN INVETERATE PAPER GRADER (with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe and his pet bird?!) John H. H odges Depanmem of Mathematics University ofColorado at Boulder, Boulder. Colo rado 80309..1J426 Once upon a midnight dreary. As I pondered weak and weary, Over proofs both short and longer, In styles that could be stronger, Trying to keep track of pages, When not numbered. mixed in stages, If not stapled, they got shuffled, Frustrated sighs and barely muffled. As I tried to judge if valid, Gradually my face went palid, As I searc hed both eanh and sky Fo r quantifiers on both x and Y, Will I find them, I implore? QU OTIl TIlE RAYEN "NEVERMORE"! LIMERICKS 1: MOTLEY MATHEMATICAL MUSINGS (wi th apologies to the great mathemat icians named) by John H . Hodges 1. Ahmes wa s an Egyptian scri be. (R hind Papyrus, With practical problems he did vibe , 1650 B.c.) He wrote on papyr us. Inspired by Osiri s, About bread and beer to imbibe. 2. In MiletusThales worked we're told. (- 600B.C.) To create a method, new and bold: 'Tis not enough to just "grove" it. You really must prove it. If for eon s you want it to hold . 3. Pythagoras was a secretive man. Founded a club that he also ran. The whol e numbers they studied. by irrationals were muddied. But their work still makes you a fan . 4. Archytas wa s a versatile chum. A leading ci tize n o f Tarentum. Taught Eudoxu s how to add. Fri end of Plato, made him glad, Found mean proponi on als too. by gum! (- 585-500 B.C.) (428-347 B.C.) 5. Eudoxus was a brilliant man. If he can't do it nobody can, He promoted proportions. Rescued Pythagorean fonunes, His method of exhaustion is gra md ). 6. Eratosthenes from old Cyrene, (- 230 B.C.) Whose frames yield two proportions mean, With calculations ringed the earth, And long before Magellan 's birth , His sieve leaves primes caught in between. (And so we 're glad he made the scene.) 7. Chou-pel was a famous treati se, (- 206 B.c. Said the Greeks, " It may have beat us," - 222 A.D.) But Pythagoras will live. or earlier No proof did "Chou" give, So there is no "Chou-pel's Theorem" to greet us. 8. Menelaus and (Claudius) Ptolemy , Both loved trigonometry, The first worked mainly on the sphere, The second made Hipparchus clear, In his "great" bookof astronomy. 9. Good old Pappus wrote a guide , To the math that gave Greeks pride, If he hadn 't known it, Then no one had shown it, His" Collection" was both deep and wide. 10. Theon was a "commentator", Not a true originator, But his comments on Euclid, Made geometry lucid, So he wasn'tjust an idle spectator. (- 100 AD. ) (- 300 A.D.) (- 390 AD. ) 11. Proclu s was a Neoplaton ist, Of Euclid ' s work he gave the gist, His "Eudemian" summary Gave us Geometry's history, Which otherwise would be lost in the mist. (5.h Century AD.) 12. Li Yeh liked to work with digi ts, (1248­ But negativenumbers gave himfid gits. 1259 AD. ) So, in numerals, with dash, He inserted a slash, To change them from posits to negits. 13. Yang Hui lived in ancient China, (1261 A.D.) "Pascal' s Triangle" was his line-a, He wrote it down first, In an energy burst, And so he could claim that, "It 's a mine-a:' OH, AN ALGEBRAIST AND FOUR OTHER MATH·NONSENSE VERSES Lewy, Helen (widow of mathematician Hans Lewy) 70 Whitaker Berkeley, CA 94708-/ 737 Oh, an algebraist known to myself, Used to boast that each week without fail, He'd invent a new matrix for funBut the poor fellow landed in jail. Oh, to tackle a lemniscate' s boundry or so, Is a thing that requires lots of nerve; It's a terrible fate to be caught unawares On the incorrect side of the curve! Oh, derangement dropped in on my typist ­ A venus with eyes of obsidian When she mused if the space on her space bar Was. - or was not, - non-Euclidian! A math prof who lived in G ilene Was dating a girl fri end called Bene Said she , ''Tell me Dove, All you know about love!" To which he replied, "Empty Set"! The equivalentimpact onbarroom discourse, Let us say. to a halfdozen beers, In rnathematics,ismerely thequestion,"What if The Jacobean disappears?" MATHOETRY IS THERE AN ANSWER Russell Smith Ashman P .O. Box 734 Harrisburg. PA / 7/08 MATHOETRY Arith, Alge, Gee, and Trig; Raised in homes strict and finn. Family of learning now quite big; Making children in classrooms squirm. Arabic numbers now we have. To them we owe a debt. From here began our science math; Let's give them thank s, but nctourwrath. Alge Arab then started small, Uniting broken pans; Letters and symbols serve their needs. As scholars make their feebl e starts. Gee enhanced its marhy lines; As scholars aptl y Stared; Someancient land (...truncated)


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Poems Taken from "An Evening of Mathematical Poetry, Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal, 1992, pp. 5, Volume 1, Issue 7,