The Mathematician in Love Rankine, William J. Macquorn (1820 - 1872)

The Mathematician in Love

Rankine, William J. Macquorn (1820 - 1872)

Original Text

 

William J. Macquorn Rankine, Songs and Fables (Glasgow: James Maclehose, 1874): 3-6. 11652.e.19 British Library; PR 5209 R3S6 Robarts Library

I

1A mathematician fell madly in love

2    With a lady, young, handsome, and charming:

3By angles and ratios harmonic he strove

4Her curves and proportions all faultless to prove.

5    As he scrawled hieroglyphics alarming.

II

6He measured with care, from the ends of a base,

7    The arcs which her features subtended:

8Then he framed transcendental equations, to trace

9The flowing outlines of her figure and face,

10    And thought the result very splendid.

III

11He studied (since music has charms for the fair)

12    The theory of fiddles and whistles, --

13Then composed, by acoustic equations, an air,

14Which, when 'twas performed, made the lady's long hair

15    Stand on end, like a porcupine's bristles.

IV

16The lady loved dancing: -- he therefore applied,

17    To the polka and waltz, an equation;

18But when to rotate on his axis he tried,

19His centre of gravity swayed to one side,

20    And he fell, by the earth's gravitation.

V

21No doubts of the fate of his suit made him pause,

22    For he proved, to his own satisfaction,

23That the fair one returned his affection; -- "because,

24"As every one knows, by mechanical laws,

25    "Re-action is equal to action."

VI

26"Let x denote beauty, -- y, manners well-bred, --

27    "z, Fortune, -- (this last is essential), --

28"Let L stand for love" -- our philosopher said, --

29"Then L is a function of x, y, and z,

30    "Of the kind which is known as potential."

VII

31"Now integrate L with respect to d t,

32    "(t Standing for time and persuasion);

33"Then, between proper limits, 'tis easy to see,

34"The definite integral Marriage must be: --

35    "(A very concise demonstration)."

VIII

36Said he -- "If the wandering course of the moon

37    "By Algebra can be predicted,

38"The female affections must yield to it soon" --

39-- But the lady ran off with a dashing dragoon,

40    And left him amazed and afflicted.

Notes

3]ratios harmonic: harmonic proportion, the relation of three quantities whose reciprocals (inverse relations) are in arithmetical progression. Back to Line

7]subtended: stretched underneath or opposite to. Back to Line

8]transcendental equations: ones resulting only in an infinite series. Back to Line

30]potential: something can be calculated; more amply defined as "a mathematical function or quantity by the differentiation of which the force at any point in space arising from any system of bodies, etc. can be expressed. In the case in which the system consists of separate masses, electrical charges, etc., this quantity is equal to the sum of these, each divided by its distance from the point" (OED "potential" 5). Back to Line

31]integrate: finding a definite integral (cf. line 34) i.e., the numeric difference between the values of a function's indefinite integral for two values of the independent variable. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

 

1874

 

Counting in Russian

 

Counting

 

Counting BY MARGARITA ENGLE

  Counting

BY MARGARITA ENGLE

Harry Franck, from the United States of America - Census Enumerator

I came to Panama planning to dig

the Eighth Wonder of the World,

but I was told that white men

should never be seen working

with shovels, so I took a police job,

and now I've been transferred

to the census.

I roam the jungle, counting laborers

who live in shanties and those who live

on the run, fugitives who are too angry

to keep working for silver in a system

where they know that others

earn gold.

When islanders see me coming,

they're afraid of trouble, even though

I can't arrest them anymore—now

all I need is a record of their names, ages,

homelands, and colors.

The rules of this census confound me.

I'm expected to count white Jamaicans

as dark and every shade of Spaniard

as semi-white, so that Americans

can pretend

there's only one color

in each country.

How am I supposed to enumerate

this kid with the Cuban accent?

His skin is medium, but his eyes

are green.

And what about that Puerto Rican

scientist, who speaks like a New York

professor,

or the girl who says she doesn't know

where she was born or who her parents

are—she could be part native, or part French,

Jamaican, Chinese ...

She could even be part American,

from people who passed through here

way back

in gold rush days.

Counting feels just as impossible

as turning solid mountains

into a ditch

Abstract geometry

 

Algebra

 

Golden ratio

Salvador dali golden ratio

Da vinci

psalm 100 niv for the 100th post of the year

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 100:3 Or and not we ourselves

euler's proof for god

numb3rs

2048

genesis 1:1-2

gematria

myth of ur

genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Footnotes: