Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Taste Of Mathematics: Caroline Herschel At 31, Laura Long

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The poem brings to life how Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) learned mathematics from her brother William as they began to work as professional astronomers.

My Mathematics, Karen Morgan Ivy

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This poem reflects a personal kaleidoscopic perspective into a world of actively engaging others in teaching and learning mathematics.

Math Stories: Learning And Doing Mathematics Through Fiction Writing, Frederick Chen, Janna Raley

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this paper, we advocate the writing of mathematical fiction (i) as an aid for students in learning mathematics, and (ii) to engage students in doing mathematics.

Three Poems: The Lorenz Transformations, Rotating The Strange Attractor To Find The Principal Components, The Sieve Of Eratosthenes, Robin Chapman

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Outlier, Or A Statistical Explanation Of Fear, Erika Dyquisto

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Postscript

As a seventh grader, I would sit in algebra class thinking I understood what my teacher had explained -- the order of operations or how to factor a polynomial -- but I would get home, try to do my homework, and my “knowledge” was gone. I had a vague idea that these formulas were about complicated relationships: the division and commonalities of beings. But just as I didn’t have the experience to allow me to discern the true nature of the human relationships these abstract concepts could represent, I didn’t know how to apply these new calculations to anything …

Poetic Reactions, Lawrence M. Lesser

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This trio of poems helps illustrate some of the many ways mathematics, poetry, and life integrate and inspire each other.

How To Cook Up A Math Poem In N Easy Steps, Caleb Emmons

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A mathematical poem attempts to distill a mathematical concept and present it in a literary or visually compelling way. This paper presents an outline of my own personal method of composing such poetry. The outline is elucidated via an extended meditation on the composition of one particular poem.

Wandering About: Analogy, Ambiguity And Humanistic Mathematics, William M. Priestley

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This article concerns the relationship between mathematics and language, emphasizing the role of analogy both as an expression of a mathematical property and as a source of productive ambiguity in mathematics. An historical discussion is given of the interplay between the notions of logos, litotes, and limit that has implications for our understanding and teaching of Dedekind cuts and, more generally, for a humanistic notion of the role of mathematics within liberal education.

Teaching The Complex Numbers: What History And Philosophy Of Mathematics Suggest, Emily R. Grosholz

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The narrative about the nineteenth century favored by many philosophers of mathematics strongly influenced by either logic or algebra, is that geometric intuition led real and complex analysis astray until Cauchy and Kronecker in one sense and Dedekind in another guided mathematicians out of the labyrinth through the arithmetization of analysis. Yet the use of geometry in most cases in nineteenth century mathematics was not misleading and was often key to important developments. Thus the geometrization of complex numbers was essential to their acceptance and to the development of complex analysis; geometry provided the canonical examples that led to the …