Plus Advent Calendar Door #13: mathematical poetry
On this 13th day of our Christmas Advent we thought you might like to think about your true love, and for that you need your maths.
You might find it surprising but mathematics provides some of the most profound metaphors for love and human relationships. From converging infinite sequences describing the attraction and force of love in A disappearing number to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I love thee, let me count the ways…", the rich language in mathematics provides just an accurate and evocative description of human emotions as it rigorously defines mathematical concepts.
You can find a wonderful collection of mathematical love poems in one of our favourite poetry books, Strange attractors: Poems of love and mathematics containing beautiful poems from across the last two millennia. And more recently, the students of The Camden School for Girls in London have written Sciku: The Wonder of Science - in Haiku!. You can hear more from the authors themselves in the video below!
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