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The Write Way 21 May 2004 " Beauty is truth, truth beauty ..." Greetings, Isn't it funny how your perceptions can change as you get older ... I mean, as you mature? When I was at school, I always felt overwhelmed by maths. I just couldn't understand it although I could see that it would be useful to know how to do some of the basic calculations. As a result, I wasn't terribly interested, I did poorly and I dropped it in favour of more language and history subjects in my final years. It's only been in the past decade or so that I've come to appreciate the appeal of maths. OK ... I can see all our 'Murkin cousins out there squirming over my use of "maths" rather than "math." But the term is an abbreviation of "mathematics" ... with an S, and there's nothing singular about the study of maths, I can tell you (says she, trying hard to work in a clever maths joke about singular points and singularities, but revealing once and for all that the maths Muse passed her by). A few years back, I bought myself a great book called, "Thinking Mathematically" by a maths bloke called Théodore Macdonald. It's one of those books that is best read with a pencil and copious supplies of scribble paper, because he gives little tasks to try all the way through. He begins by asking readers to list the first 3 odd numbers and add them up, then to list the first 5 odd numbers and add them up, then the first 7 odd numbers and add them up and so on for as long as this activity keeps you entertained, and you're not distracted by any shiny objects around you. So I dutifully wrinkled my brow, chewed the end of my pencil, took off my shoes so I could count on my toes and off I went ... 1+3+5=9 1+3+5+7+9=25 1+3+5+7+9+11+13=49 "Now," says he, "what pattern can you see?" Umm ... er ... Hang on! I see it! I see it! Wow! Talk about a moment of enlightenment ... A tree falling in the forest, one hand clapping, a butterfly dreaming it's a man ... They're all nothing ... But this ... This was brilliant. He explained it thus: "the sum of the first n odd integers equals the square of n itself," but as far as I could see, if you count the number of first odd numbers you've written down and then add them up, the total of these is the square of the number of numbers you added ... OK, maybe his way is better, but what makes mine great is that I found it myself, and I could really and truly see that this is what happens. Now if only my teacher had started our course with this little exercise, I might have fallen in love with the subject back then when I had the time to develop some mathy-type skills. Never mind - it's never too late! You know, the really wonderful the thing about this odd integer exercise is that it turns out this way every time, with as many numbers as you care to add, over and over. And what's more, it happened like this thousands of years ago when whoever the smart cookie was who first saw the pattern called to his mates, "Hey, look! This is really cool!" And, it will always happen like this, whether you're sitting on your back deck with a pencil and bit of paper in 2004 or chatting to Hal as you zip through wormholes on your way to galaxy S11_13510 in 3004. (And if you think I made that up, read this: "The galaxy is 55,000 Mega-parsecs (Mpc), or 179,390,000,000 light-years (ly), distant in the constellation of Leo. Astronomers express this large distance as redshift 5.7. The limit of the observable universe is believed to be around redshift 6. According to current cosmology, at redshift 5.7 the Universe was only 1 billion years (1 Gyr) old, less than 10% the age it is now (13.5 Gyr). "The galaxy, provisionally catalogued as S11_13510, is less than 3.2 kpc (10,500 ly) in diameter. It is a much more compact system than our own Milky Way Galaxy which is around 10 times bigger. It also is undergoing a huge burst of star formation, which is producing a large-scale outflow of material from the galaxy, a "galactic wind". There's even a photo!)
It's comforting to know there are some things we can count on to be true for all time, especially when you consider some of the comments we think of as "universal truths" such as: "What goes up, must come down." Well, not really. Not once you leave the confines of Planet Earth it doesn't. What goes up, just goes ... and goes ... and goes. "Night follows day." "The sun always rises." None of these maxims apply if you happen to be sipping your café latte at the restaurant at the end of the Universe. But, on a cosmic scale, the sum of the first n odd integers always equals the square of n itself ... and the square on the hypotenuse always will equal the sum of the squares of the other two sides ... and ... (I did try to find a third example, to satisfy the "Rule of Three" but even though I found lots, I couldn't understand any of them.) Despite this obvious handicap, the thing I find most satisfying about maths is the beautiful, universal order of it all. I can see why astrophysicists like Paul Davies wax lyrical about their sums. He writes, "... mathematics is the guarantor of precision and objectivity. It is also ... the language of nature itself ... mathematics is a key that enables the initiate to unlock cosmic secrets ..." That's no surprise when you consider that the word "cosmos" is derived from the Greek 'kosmos' meaning "order." dictionary.com defines "cosmos" as, "The universe or universality of created things; -- so called from the order and harmony displayed in it." But we've taken this one step further and revealed an endearing (and reassuring) insight into human nature by using this word as the base of "cosmetic" defined as, "A preparation, such as powder or a skin cream, designed to beautify the body by direct application." See, John Keats was right, "beauty is truth, truth beauty ..." (You can read the rest of Ode on a Grecian Urn here.) Here are a couple of terms with a mathematical bent and an interesting past: "Plus: comes from the early Latin word meaning "more." Extensions of the root were used for related ideas like fill, full, and abundant. Common words of today related to the same root are plenty, complement (meaning complete or fill, as in complementary angles, the amount needed to complete a right angle), plural (more than one), and surplus (abundant, more than enough). "Polygon: is from the Greek roots poli (many) and gonus (knees) and, interprets literally as many angled. The relation between knee and angle relates to the flexed position of the knee. Poly appears in many words, and gonus remains mainly in its Latin derivative, genus, from which we get genuflect (to bend the knee). According to John Conway, terms like gnaw are from the same root, perhaps because the line of the jaw forms the same shape as the bent knee. Another current word with the "gen" connection to knee is genuine. In the early days of Rome, a father legally claimed his newborn by placing the child on his knee." (Source) (Despite this charming story, most dictionaries assert that the word is derived from the Greek "gwnos" meaning angle. But I much prefer the knees, don't you?) If you're one of those people who understands all those funny squiggles, you'll enjoy this site (But ... ummm ... I think it's in code.) And for those of you who thought Advanced Maths was hard: "Seen the week before finals on the chalkboard right after a Math 233 (Discrete Math) class at the University: 59 + 34 + 2 + 37 + 97 = some number" And some interesting theorems: "Theorem 1. Every horse has an infinite number of legs. "(Proof by intimidation.) Proof. Horses have an even number of legs. Behind they have two legs and in front they have fore legs. This makes six legs, which is certainly an odd number of legs for a horse. But the only number that is both odd and even is infinity. Therefore horses have an infinite number of legs. "Theorem 2: a cat has nine tails. "Proof: No cat has eight tails. A cat has one tail more than no cat. Therefore, a cat has nine tails." This week's quiz: rhombus, algorithm, cryptarithm, frustum, congruent, heptagon, hexagon, lemma, trapezoid, geodesic 1. a truncated cone or pyramid; the part that is left when a cone or pyramid is cut by a plane parallel to the base and the apical part is removed 2. polygon with six sides 3. the shortest line between two points on a mathematically defined surface (as a straight line on a plane or an arc of a great circle on a sphere) 4. a set of step-by-step instructions for doing something carrying out a computation, solving a problem, and so on 5. a proposition that is useful mainly for the proof of some other theorem 6. a parallelogram whose sides are all the same length; the angles are usually not right angles, but they may be right angles 7. two figures that are identical-the same size and shape 8. a quadrilateral that has exactly one pair of parallel sides; no two sides need be the same length 9. a polygon with seven sides 10.an arithmetic problem in which letters have been substituted for numbers and which is solved by finding all possible pairings of digits with letters that produce a numerically correct answer Some trivia for you: "Algebra is x-sighting. I hope you found that the information about the copywriting seminar I sent you last Monday was interesting. And, yes, it was from me! Remember, I told you that anything I send will have the date as the subject (similar to the format that's appeared on all 285 issues of this newsletter). OK, you may want to skip this next part, 'cause I'm going to have a little hissy fit. If you don't want to witness my tantrum, just scroll down to where it says, "It's safe to come back now." I was disappointed to see a couple of people unsubscribe after I sent the one-off mailing and a little perturbed by one person who wrote, "You appear to be more interested in money and how to generate it than you are in correct writing. I have unsubscribed today." Sigh ... Those of you who've been members of our Merry Band since 1998, will know that I've sent out ... what? 4, maybe 5 unscheduled issues of the newsletter in all that time, promoting something I felt would be of interest to some of our members. Obviously not everyone is interested in the opportunity to attend a copywriting seminar (just as not everyone would have been interested in the maths topic this week), but next week, I might just hit on something you've always wondered about ... It's all about give and take, girls and boys, give and take. There. I feel better now I've defended myself. It's safe to come back now. Last week's quiz: sousaphone, tontine, negus, milquetoast,quisling, bowdlerise, braggadocio, havelock, mithridatism 1. timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive - MILQUETOAST (named after Caspar Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster 1885-1952) 2. a cloth covering for a cap, having a flap to cover and protect the back of the neck - HAVELOCK (After Sir Henry Havelock British soldier 1795-1857) 3. the lowest brass wind instrument - SOUSAPHONE (The sousaphone is a musical instrument named after John Philip Sousa, the famous march composer and conductor. It was invented in the 1890s to replace tubas in marching bands: in a concert, the tuba is traditionally held on the musician's lap with the bell pointed upward. Source) 4. a special kind of life insurance policy – one which pays an annuity to its subscribers after they have paid into it for a certain number of years - TONTINE (a banker from Naples named Lorenzo Tonti back in 17th century France, came up with this early (and rather unusual) form of life insurance. What’s special about a tontine is that it is a common policy shared by a number of people, and the annuity received of each subscriber increases as the other members of the group die, until, finally, the last surviving member, receives the whole annuity to himself or herself) 5. a beverage of wine, hot water, lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg - NEGUS (after Francis Negus English army officer who died in 1732) 6. tolerance or immunity to a poison acquired by taking gradually larger doses of it - MITHRIDATISM (After Mithridates VI, said to have acquired tolerance for poison) 7. edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate - BOWDLERISE (After Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1818) 8. a traitor who serves as the puppet of the enemy occupying his or her country - QUISLING (After Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), head of Norway's government during the Nazi occupation (1940-1945).) 9. vain and empty boasting - BRAGGADOCIO (Alteration of Braggadocchio, the personification of vainglory in The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser) 10.the buying or selling of ecclesiastical pardons, offices, or emoluments - SIMONY (Middle English 'simonie' from Old French, from Late Latin simonia, after Simon Magus, a sorcerer who tried to buy spiritual powers from the Apostle Peter) Thank you to everyone who's made a comment on the Map of the World. Add your mark now. A Little Something Extra This week, Susan Letham helps find The Perfect Word! "What's the
difference between the following two statements: (a) "I can write" and
(b) "I'm a writer"? Read the rest of the article about how
to find the perfect word. Ah! Just the ticket to describe some of the sites I visited in my quest to bring you things mathematical. If you received this newsletter from a friend and you'd like to have your very own copy delivered to you on Friday, just click here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and why not spread the word? Send your friends a copy and invite
them to join our merry band - we number over 9,000 now. Please forward the
newsletter in its entirety and note that no portion of this is to be circulated
for profit. And this week's Latin phrase would make a great bumper sticker ... for those of you so inclined: Numeri regit. Itane vero? (Maths rules. OK?) Regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Here's how: 1. Pay by PayPal:
2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form: http://www.write101.com/fund.htm (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart): http://www.write101.com/fund.htm Copyright 2004 Jennifer Stewart Individual articles copyrighted by
their authors.
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