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Mathematics Commons

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Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Mathematics

The Use And Development Of Mathematics Within Creative Literature, Toby S C Peres Feb 2023

The Use And Development Of Mathematics Within Creative Literature, Toby S C Peres

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper presents a study on the extent to which creative literature been used as a vessel to carry forward the development of mathematical thought. The role of mathematics as a driving force for literature is highlighted, and while many examples exist that clearly show an attempt to disperse mathematical ideas, with Lewis Carroll, OuLiPo and ancient poetry considered, the argument that the sole purpose of the writings was for the sake of mathematical development is not clear-cut.


Squate, Tom Blackford Jul 2022

Squate, Tom Blackford

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This is the story of a middle school student who befriends an irrational number, the square root of eight.


How To Measure A Coastline, Nora E. Culik Jul 2020

How To Measure A Coastline, Nora E. Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The infinite shoreline of Lake Superior is embedded in the mathematical imagination, the memory of its stony beaches, and in the unifying consciousness that holds them all, just as the lake itself lies cradled in the land. The narrator of these paradoxes finds the lake, its border, and the calculi strewn along its shore a place a space between worlds where we rediscover that we can’t measure what we can’t locate, and can’t locate what we can’t measure, even the versions of ourselves.


What The Wasp Said, Hugh C. Culik Jan 2019

What The Wasp Said, Hugh C. Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

On a bright spring day, the ancient building housing the English and Logic Departments begins to slowly collapse on itself, trapping McMann (an inept English professor) and Lucy Curt (a logician) in the office they share. As the Fibonacci repetitions of the building’s brickwork slowly peel away, McMann seizes the moment to tell Lucy stories about skunks, stories whose recurrent pattern finally leads to the unrecognized connection between a “message” burned into his ear by a wasp and the orderly universe for which he cannot find a language. At last, he looks up only to see Lucy descending a ladder, …


When Mercy Seasons Justice, Basant K B Jul 2018

When Mercy Seasons Justice, Basant K B

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This is based on the simple mathematical concept of ratio, which tends to get more intricate the more one thinks about it.


Jesus And The Walnuts, Hugh C. Culik Jan 2018

Jesus And The Walnuts, Hugh C. Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In “Jesus & the Walnuts,” a hapless English professor invokes fragments of mathematical thought to integrate his hunger for a knowable world with his affection for the logician with whom he shares an office. While “not even wrong” and horribly clumsy, his aspirations are iterations of the drive for order and meaning that are shared across disciplinary knowledge . . . and the hungers of the heart.


A Generalised Song, Will Turner Jul 2017

A Generalised Song, Will Turner

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

We consider parallels between words and music. We call a triple of structures, one verbal, one musical, and one mathematical, in which the mathematical structure is related to the verbal and musical structures, a generalised song. With the intention of exhibiting the potential of this form, we describe a generalised song called ‘Cube’.


The University Of Montana Department Of Mathematics Post-Apocalyptic Working Seminar, Kenan A. Ince Feb 2017

The University Of Montana Department Of Mathematics Post-Apocalyptic Working Seminar, Kenan A. Ince

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.


What If?: Mathematics, Creative Writing, And Play, Emily Clader Jan 2016

What If?: Mathematics, Creative Writing, And Play, Emily Clader

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Mathematics can inform creative writing by suggesting structures for it to follow, as well as by providing the imaginative impetus for common rules to be broken. In a workshop co-taught by the author, a class of sixth-grade students explored this interplay as they produced fractal-inspired poetry and geometry-inspired fiction. This article describes the form and results of the workshop in the context of a broader discussion of the influence of mathematics upon literature.


The Topology Of Absence, Nora E. Culik Jul 2015

The Topology Of Absence, Nora E. Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

“The Topology of Absence” literalizes triangulations, hyperbeloids, and the concept of the limit in the story of “locating” a lost mother. This story, like “The Physicist’s Basement” in the July 2014 issue, is part of a series that worries about competing notions of mathematics, i.e., mathematics as some sort of disembodied configuration or as emergent in the material reality of human life.


The Physicist's Basement, Nora Culik Jul 2014

The Physicist's Basement, Nora Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.


Prove It!, Kenny W. Moran Jan 2012

Prove It!, Kenny W. Moran

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A dialogue between a mathematics professor, Frank, and his daughter, Sarah, a mathematical savant with a powerful mathematical intuition. Sarah's intuition allows her to stumble into some famous theorems from number theory, but her lack of academic mathematical background makes it difficult for her to understand Frank's insistence on the value of proof and formality.


Mathematical Fiction, Pat Mower Mar 1999

Mathematical Fiction, Pat Mower

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.


A Day In The Life Of Diophantus (C. 251 A.D.), Rebecca Pekrul Mar 1999

A Day In The Life Of Diophantus (C. 251 A.D.), Rebecca Pekrul

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.


News Extra: Ancient Document Discovered"Could Be The Greatest Of All Time If Validated" Says Professor, Shawn Dolezilek Mar 1999

News Extra: Ancient Document Discovered"Could Be The Greatest Of All Time If Validated" Says Professor, Shawn Dolezilek

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.


Limericks On The "Century Of Genius", Thomas J. Lipp Mar 1999

Limericks On The "Century Of Genius", Thomas J. Lipp

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.