What does mathematics have to do with poetry? Seemingly, nothing. Mathematics deals with abstractions while poetry with emotions. And yet, the two share something essential: Beauty. “Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare,” says the title of a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay.“Mathematics, Poetry and Beauty” tries to solve the secret of the similarity between the two domains. It tries to explain how a mathematical argument and a poem can move us in the same way. Mathematical and poetic techniques are compared, with the aim of showing how they evoke the same sense of beauty.
The reader may find that, as Bertrand Russell said, “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty hold and austere, like that of sculpture … sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.”Contents:Order:The Curious Case of the Ants on the PoleHidden OrderTo Discover or to InventOrder and BeautyMathematical HarmoniesWhy √2 is Not a Rational NumberThe Real NumbersThe Miracle of OrderSimple Conjectures, Complex ProofsIndependent EventsHow Mathematicians and Poets Think:Poetic Image, Mathematical ImageThe Power of the ObliqueCompressionMathematical Ping-PongThe Book in HeavenPoetical Ping-PongLaws of ConservationAn Idea from Somewhere ElseThree Types of MathematicsTopologyMatchmakingImaginationA Magic NumberReality or ImaginationUnexpected CombinationsWhat is Mathematics?Deep TautologiesSymmetryImpossibilityInfinitely LargeCantor's StoryThe Most Beautiful Proof?Paradoxes and OxymoronsSelf-Reference and Gödel's TheoremHalfway to Infinity: Large NumbersInfinitely SmallInfinitely Many Numbers Having a Finite SumTwistsTwo Levels of Perception:Knowing without KnowingContent and HuskChangeEstrangementAn Endless EncounterAppendix A: Mathematical FieldsAppendix B: Sets of NumbersAppendix C: Poetical Mechanisms Mentioned in the BookReadership: Those interested in Mathematics, those interested in poetry, and the general public.Key Features:It presents laymen and mathematicians alike with beautiful pieces of mathematics, and studies techniques of both poetry and mathematics that contribute to beauty.