English or Math?

writing this haiku
an exercise in counting
feels more like math class

Why Kurt Godel Couldn't Write Love Poems

"Why certainly" you say,
but how do you know it's so?
You seem to think that proof
Will guarantee what you know.
But even in a realm
As clear cut as the numbers,
Shades of uncertainty
Awaken from their slumbers.
If some of math's own truths
Float upon a proofless sea,
Then what slight hope have you
To prove your love's truth to me?

Martin Gardner: RIP

I came back to work after being out sick for a couple of days to find the news that Martin Gardner had died on May 22, at the age of 95. There are plenty of tributes and remembrances online by those who knew him personally as well as by those who only knew him through his amazing writings. This is yet another tribute...

Martin Garnder inspired me, turned me on to new ideas, entertained me, and gave me hope. His death changes none of that. The heavens are still there to wonder at even after a star burns out. But it is not wrong to mourn its passing.

The first book of Mr. Gardner's I read was Relativity for the Million. It was the first book on relativity I ever read, and it opened my eyes to the weirdness of the universe. Like many, I delighted in his columns in Scientific American (even when I couldn't always solve his puzzles!) His Annotated Alice and Annotated Hunting of the Snark deepened my enjoyment of my favorite "children's" author. The Flight of Peter Fromm hit very close to home for a seminary graduate and recreational math and logic guy who sometimes sways deep into the doubt-o-meter. The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener was a delight, as was, well, just about everything I've ever read by Mr. Gardner.

As someone with no formal training in math, Martin Gardner's writings have been one of my primary teachers (my other teachers include Raymond Smullyan and Rudy Rucker, both of whom, like Mr. Gardner, embody a deep sense of the whimsical as well as a profound understanding of mathematics). I will continue to learn from Martin Gardner throughout the rest of my life, because that is the kind of writer he was. And generations to follow will learn from him as well. His star may have burned out, but he was light years ahead of most of us, and it will take years before his light stops shining down on this world.

Elementary Numbers for Breakfast

• 1967 is not a prime.
• 19 is a prime, so is 67.
• 1967 is sort of symmetrical, in binary (11110101111).
• 1967 in binary is 19 digits long.
• 19 is (still) a prime.
• 1+1+1+1+0+1+0+1+1+1+1=9.
• 9 is not prime (but it is the numerological value of both my name and my birthdate).
• 1967 has only two proper factors: 7 and 281.
• 7 and 281 are primes.
• 2+8+1=11.
• 11 is a prime.
• 1+1=2.
• 2 is a prime.
• 1+9+6+7=23.
• 23 is a prime.
• 2+3=5.
• 5 is a prime.
• I was born in 1967, and I like primes.
• The above statement is not universally true, but it is true of me.

I'll Square Your Circle

On this date in 1679, philosopher Thomas Hobbes died, thus ending his 25 year feud with John Wallis over Hobbes's attempt to square the circle in 1655. It began when Hobbes called Wallis's Arithmetica Infinitorum a "scab of symbols."

--source, The MAA Mathematics Digital Library

Happy Birthday, St. Knuth!

Today, legendary computer scientist Donald E. Knuth turns 70! It is extremely safe to say that without Knuth's work modern computer science would not look the way it looks today, both in content (Knuth is the Grand Master of Algorithms) and appearance (his work in typesetting is still the basis for much scholarly publication in fields where equations matter).

His mathematical novel Surreal Numbers has helped me gain a better (though, sadly, not yet perfect) grasp Conway's original work.

A Christian by faith, Knuth is an accomplished church organist and a righteously funny man.

A quote from one of Knuth's many works:

"When I talk about computer science as a possible basis for insights about God, of course I’m not thinking about God as a super-smart intellect surrounded by large clusters of ultrafast Linux workstations and great search engines. That’s the user’s point of view." --Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About, p. 168.

Happy Birthday, O Blessed Saint of Geekiness!