Post by krusader74 on Dec 10, 2016 15:52:09 GMT -6
Appendix M: Mathematics in Fiction
This list is by no means comprehensive. Just stuff I've enjoyed (or plan to). At the bottom of the list in the "meta" section there's a list of lists with links to more math in fiction. Please feel free to comment and add your own favorite math-themed novels, short stories, comics, movies, TV shows, songs, poetry and sacred texts...
Mathematics in Novels
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884) by Edwin A. Abbott. Public Domain.
Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe (1965) by Dionys Burger. A sequel to Flatland.
Surreal Numbers: How two ex-students turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness (1974) by Donald E. Knuth, 119 pages. Recent YouTube Video in which Knuth describes writing the book (14 minutes).
The Alice books by Lewis Carroll
Mathematics in Short Stories
The Dreams in the Witch House (1933) by H. P. Lovecraft. "A story of mathematics, witchcraft and Walpurgis Night, in which the horror creeps and grows..." See the OD&D Discussion thread.
Professor James Moriarty is the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes in some of the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is a math professor (and academic chair) at a smaller university and the author of the book, The Dynamics of an Asteroid. Possibly modeled after Gauss and Ramanujan. Stories:
"Gödel's Doom" (1985) by George Zebrowski. Collected in Swift Thoughts
"The Nine Billion Names of God" (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke
Mathematics in Comics
Fantastic Four (2001-2006) by Mark Waid and Mark Wieringo Book One features a story arc about a living equation.
Numbercruncher by Simon Spurrier - "Dying young, a brilliant Mathematician discovers a way to cheat the terrifying Divine Calculator..."
Detective Comics (1937-2011) #683 and #684 by Chuck Dixon - pits Batman against the "Actuary."
Mathematics in Movies
Flatland: The Movie - Official Trailer. Starring: Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, Joe Estevez and Michael York
Flatland2: Sphereland Official Trailer Starring: Kristen Bell, Danny Pudi, Michael York, Danica McKellar, Tony Hale, and Kate Mulgrew
Pi (1998) by Darren Aronofsky
Mathematics on TV
NUMB3RS (2005 - 2010) on CBS
The Big Bang Theory (2007 - Present) on CBS. Here's a Google search for math references and jokes in the show to get you started.
Star Trek (1966 - 1969) on NBC. See The Maths of Star Trek: The Original Series (3 part series) by James Grime
Wild Wild West (1965 - 1969) on CBS season 4 episode "Night of the Avaricious Actuary" -- no real math, but at least actuaries get a shout-out in the title
Mathematics in Song
Major-General's Song from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance:
There are many versions of this song on YouTube. My favorite clip is Simon Butteriss singing on BBC's Andrew Marr Show, 31 July 2011 (HQ video; 2 minutes 4 seconds).
Pi by Kate Bush
A Fugue On Pie by Greg Ristow (49 seconds)
Tom Lehrer's many math songs:
Mathematics in Poetry
Pi-Ku -- haiku based on Pi
Math-themed haiku
Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics, a blog by JoAnne Growney.
Poetry Inspired by Mathematics (2010) by Sarah Glaz (PDF: 8 pages)
Mathematics in Sacred Texts
Some Examples of Mathematical Analysis Applied to Talmud Study by Jonathan Rosenberg
Sangaku or Japanese Temple Problems. These are wooden tablets dating back to the 17th century, placed in Shinto and Buddhist temples, containing mathematics puzzles, often geometric.
Mathematics of the Vedas by Krishna Maheshwari
In Jain scripture, the Karan-anuyoga (Ganit-anuyog) or "Description of the Universe" consists of texts on geography, mathematics, astronomy, and astrology.
Pythagoreanism - An ancient religion based on numbers. This article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a large bibliography.
Best times to read and write about math...
March 24 is Pi Day -- a good day to write your own Pi-Ku
April is Math Awareness Month -- a good time to read math inspired fiction.
June 24 is Tau Day
Meta List
Mathematical Fiction - A database of 1219 works of mathematical fiction by Alex Kasman
Mathematics in Movies - A list by Oliver Knill at Harvard
List of films about mathematicians at Wikipedia
The Mathematics of Fiction - A lecture by Manil Suri that looks at some mathematical techniques that have analogs in writing fiction (Video: 48 minutes 26 seconds).
Fictional actuaries at Wikipedia
Why Writers Should Learn Math by Alexander Nazaryan. New Yorker. November 2, 2012.
This list is by no means comprehensive. Just stuff I've enjoyed (or plan to). At the bottom of the list in the "meta" section there's a list of lists with links to more math in fiction. Please feel free to comment and add your own favorite math-themed novels, short stories, comics, movies, TV shows, songs, poetry and sacred texts...
Mathematics in Novels
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884) by Edwin A. Abbott. Public Domain.
Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe (1965) by Dionys Burger. A sequel to Flatland.
Surreal Numbers: How two ex-students turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness (1974) by Donald E. Knuth, 119 pages. Recent YouTube Video in which Knuth describes writing the book (14 minutes).
The Alice books by Lewis Carroll
Mathematics in Short Stories
The Dreams in the Witch House (1933) by H. P. Lovecraft. "A story of mathematics, witchcraft and Walpurgis Night, in which the horror creeps and grows..." See the OD&D Discussion thread.
Professor James Moriarty is the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes in some of the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is a math professor (and academic chair) at a smaller university and the author of the book, The Dynamics of an Asteroid. Possibly modeled after Gauss and Ramanujan. Stories:
- The Final Problem -- His first (and last) appearance
- The Valley of Fear -- Set before "The Final Problem," but written later
- Also mentioned reminiscently in 5 other stories
"Gödel's Doom" (1985) by George Zebrowski. Collected in Swift Thoughts
"The Nine Billion Names of God" (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke
Mathematics in Comics
Fantastic Four (2001-2006) by Mark Waid and Mark Wieringo Book One features a story arc about a living equation.
Numbercruncher by Simon Spurrier - "Dying young, a brilliant Mathematician discovers a way to cheat the terrifying Divine Calculator..."
Detective Comics (1937-2011) #683 and #684 by Chuck Dixon - pits Batman against the "Actuary."
Mathematics in Movies
Flatland: The Movie - Official Trailer. Starring: Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, Joe Estevez and Michael York
Flatland2: Sphereland Official Trailer Starring: Kristen Bell, Danny Pudi, Michael York, Danica McKellar, Tony Hale, and Kate Mulgrew
Pi (1998) by Darren Aronofsky
Mathematics on TV
NUMB3RS (2005 - 2010) on CBS
The Big Bang Theory (2007 - Present) on CBS. Here's a Google search for math references and jokes in the show to get you started.
Star Trek (1966 - 1969) on NBC. See The Maths of Star Trek: The Original Series (3 part series) by James Grime
Wild Wild West (1965 - 1969) on CBS season 4 episode "Night of the Avaricious Actuary" -- no real math, but at least actuaries get a shout-out in the title
Mathematics in Song
Major-General's Song from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance:
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, (bothered for a rhyme)
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
...
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, (bothered for a rhyme)
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
...
There are many versions of this song on YouTube. My favorite clip is Simon Butteriss singing on BBC's Andrew Marr Show, 31 July 2011 (HQ video; 2 minutes 4 seconds).
Pi by Kate Bush
A Fugue On Pie by Greg Ristow (49 seconds)
Tom Lehrer's many math songs:
- Decimal
- Derivative Song
- Lobachevsky
- New Math
- That's Mathematics!
- The Professor's Song
- There is a Delta for Every Epsilon
Mathematics in Poetry
A mathematician who is not also something of a poet will never be a complete mathematician.
--Karl Weierstrass
--Karl Weierstrass
Pi-Ku -- haiku based on Pi
Math-themed haiku
Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics, a blog by JoAnne Growney.
Poetry Inspired by Mathematics (2010) by Sarah Glaz (PDF: 8 pages)
Mathematics in Sacred Texts
Kinnim and Niddah, while difficult tractates involving complicated quantitative issues, are an integral part of the halakhah. Astronomy and geometry are the embellishments of wisdom.
Alternative translation: The laws of mixed bird offerings and the key to the calculations of menstruation days, these are the body of the halakhah. The calculation of the equinoxes and gematria are the desserts of wisdom.
--Rabbi Eliezer the son of Chisma, Mishnah ("Avot," Ch 3, Mishnah 18)
Alternative translation: The laws of mixed bird offerings and the key to the calculations of menstruation days, these are the body of the halakhah. The calculation of the equinoxes and gematria are the desserts of wisdom.
--Rabbi Eliezer the son of Chisma, Mishnah ("Avot," Ch 3, Mishnah 18)
Some Examples of Mathematical Analysis Applied to Talmud Study by Jonathan Rosenberg
Sangaku or Japanese Temple Problems. These are wooden tablets dating back to the 17th century, placed in Shinto and Buddhist temples, containing mathematics puzzles, often geometric.
Mathematics of the Vedas by Krishna Maheshwari
In Jain scripture, the Karan-anuyoga (Ganit-anuyog) or "Description of the Universe" consists of texts on geography, mathematics, astronomy, and astrology.
Pythagoreanism - An ancient religion based on numbers. This article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a large bibliography.
Best times to read and write about math...
March 24 is Pi Day -- a good day to write your own Pi-Ku
April is Math Awareness Month -- a good time to read math inspired fiction.
June 24 is Tau Day
Meta List
Mathematical Fiction - A database of 1219 works of mathematical fiction by Alex Kasman
Mathematics in Movies - A list by Oliver Knill at Harvard
List of films about mathematicians at Wikipedia
The Mathematics of Fiction - A lecture by Manil Suri that looks at some mathematical techniques that have analogs in writing fiction (Video: 48 minutes 26 seconds).
Fictional actuaries at Wikipedia
Why Writers Should Learn Math by Alexander Nazaryan. New Yorker. November 2, 2012.
