Posts: 751
Threads: 409
Joined: May 2014
Let's Pretend it's April - Nov. 24
Rules: Write a poem for
LPiA on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for the month of November.
Topic : Write a poem inspired by mathematics.
Form : Any
Line requirements: 8 or more
Feel free to reply with comments or kudos as you wish.
Questions?
Posts: 400
Threads: 58
Joined: May 2022
Mathematical Ambiguity
The square root of a negative
is an impossibility, for
the square of any number
is positive. The solution to
use the imagination seems logical,
but one might falsly conclude
that the product of two
wrongs makes it right.
Posts: 894
Threads: 176
Joined: Jan 2021
Babylon's Theorems
Velocity of a saint = acceleration of sanctity (elapsed) / distance of sin (recovered)
Thermodynamic reduction of desire = (velocity of a saint) X (REM of a devils disciple)
Revelation = mystery (a serpent dreaming) / disorders of an immune system
Hypotheosis = The dismal reduction of mystery (1) by the absence of faith (2) will result in a relentless caterwaul (3)
Apotheosis = The dynamic integration of revelation (4) by the mediating presence of war, famine and pestilence results in a temporary luminescence (5)
(1) Charlemagne's uncertainty principle
(2) Alliterative sancitity
(3) A cakewalk on a sea of fire
(4) In Byzantium, only the Emperor was allowed to wear purple bushkins
(5) Baby Jesus in a runaway carriage
Posts: 1,187
Threads: 250
Joined: Nov 2015
A Glimpse of Integral
Read in an article
on education that
schools should be teaching
statistics as final-term
subject to high schoolers
rather than calculus
since they’ll need insight
into statistical
lying each day
but integrals never
in normal life.
Perhaps. But it seems
that a small dose of calculus
might be of value to
show what is possible
with higher math.
Non-practicing atheist
Posts: 952
Threads: 225
Joined: Aug 2016
People don't stay long
in my line of work.
Usually young kids
getting through college.
You can call it toxic,
most of these kids don't care.
They'll be sick every day.
I tell them, look, I love
homework, just come in,
I'll help you through it.
I actually DO use algebra
in my regular life.
Peanut butter honey banana sandwiches
Posts: 695
Threads: 139
Joined: Jun 2015
Have you ever tried
to add Roman numerals?
An empire that ruled the world
seemed to have no need
for one of the most useful concepts
in the history of mathematics:
the invention of zero.
Posts: 1,187
Threads: 250
Joined: Nov 2015
(11-25-2022, 08:17 AM)Mark A Becker Wrote: Have you ever tried
to add Roman numerals?
An empire that ruled the world
seemed to have no need
for one of the most useful concepts
in the history of mathematics:
the invention of zero.
True of zero. But the Romans used something like (or a form of) the abacus for speedy calculations - the kind they used actually follows (or derives from) the way Roman numerals work, so they could easily read the numbers without even thinking of the quantities they represented, enter them on their abacus, then (laboriously) write out the result. I believe the money-changers' "tables" Jesus overthrew were carved with such abacus patterns for quick calculation... which would have looked like magic, or just cheating, to their customers.
It's a good poem, and speaking for myself, I don't know how to use an abacus (of the modern, Oriental type) either. But apparently the Romans did get along without the goose egg. How that must have affected their philosophy and religion!
Non-practicing atheist
Posts: 471
Threads: 204
Joined: Dec 2017
Group Theory
Evariste Galois
did plenty by twenty,
his Group Theory
proving that the quintic
was insoluble, like oil in water.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic -
in an island therein -
the precocious daughter
of dear Lord Byron
was learning her times tables
dearer than Aesop's fables,
in time to help deliver
an analytical engine
that has in our time
loos'd our world from the savage
grip of boomer subculture,
freed us from the vultures -
log table, slide rule,
and the unwatchable films
of Peter O'Toole.
Posts: 695
Threads: 139
Joined: Jun 2015
(11-24-2022, 10:52 PM)TranquillityBase Wrote: (5) Baby Jesus in a runaway carriage
Good one, Tim- I love the image derived from the calculation of #5.
Posts: 1,139
Threads: 466
Joined: Nov 2013
Essentials of Set Theory
Though countless, the natural
is fewer than the virtues
which to them are considered
integral, which themselves
are fewer than the rational,
which is less than the real,
which is less than the complex.
The complex -- what else is there
beyond that which our thinkers
refer to as "imagined",
grasping only that it lies
beyond imagination?
