Week 7: Mathematics & Poetry & Novels

 Activity:

 

Alice in Wonderland as a mathematical novel?! The more I think about it, the more I understand! I see
concepts of time, binary: red pill/blue pill, big/small, good/evil...  

I really enjoyed all the poetry this week! I've always found pleasure in the patterns and rhyming involved with poetry; I've never really understood how non-rhyming poems 'work'. reading and looking at the fibonacci were really cool. When I went to the 'Bridges' Poetry website, I didn't realize that the Poet I was interested in was the same Mike Naylor, those readings were extremly enjoyable!

Here's my crack at the fib poem:

one                                                       young

two                                                       old;       

three then                                             between-

four, who knew                                   where mem'ries 

I liked math before!?                           bloom; and love dies not

Reading:  

Sarah Glaz (2019) Artist interview: JoAnne Growney Journal of mathematics and the Arts

Can a Mathematician See Red?

Consider the sphere -

a hollow rounded surface

whose outside points are the very same points 

insiders see.

 

If red paint spills

all over the outside,

is the inside red?

 

The mathematician says, No,

the layer of paint

forms a new sphere

that is outside the outside

and not a bit inside.

 

A mathematician 

sees the world

That is how this paper began (after the abstract) -a very interesting read! Sincerely an interview discussing the why's and how's surrounding mathematician JoAnne Growney came to write 'mathematical' poems. The interview incorporates 10 of her poems a link to her blog-that houses 800 postings!- and talks about her being a member of "Bridges".

I felt a connection to her statement, "Everything is connected". This is because, as we have been learning through this program, mathematics is all around us, and the BC Curriculum that mandates Teachers incorporate Indigenous Ways of knowing and being in every subject; This statement underscores that Indigenous principle.

JoAnne said "...a good rule for myself is to go out every day and smile, at least, at on person." I connected to this too! I have to get outside, I feel I have to connect to other people, and found this one of the major impacts of the Pandemic these past two years. 

I L O V E  old movies; Hedy Lamarr is an actress from the 40's that I enjoy watching; JoAnne took one of Heddy's statements, "All my six husbands married me for different reasons." and created a poem from it!

Perhaps Hedy Lamarr married so often because six

is a perfect number-the sum of all its proper

divisors, "proper" meaning "less than six," 

"divisor" meaning "a counting number

that divides and leaves

no remainder."

After a perfect number of husbands, there is no

remainder. Six is the smallest perfect 

number, the next is twenty-eight.

And twenty-eight

is too many

husbands.

The last piece that resonated with me was a project JoAnne began: counting woman mathematicians. Interviewer Sarah Glaz said, "Mathematics is a man's world. You learn how to live in it. Not quite like a man, but in terms acceptable to men." While I feel this statement as a woman and have been restricted in this 'mans world' (not the mathematics world, per se..) but more so as an Indigenous woman. I have felt the restrictions of being on the margins in this world of the white dominated society, and have felt excitement when I have encountered Indigenous role models pop up around my life as an older adult. I find that I count Indigenous People when I'm in classrooms, and conferences etc., this is a phenomenon that intend to be a part of changing.

everything is connected.