Hither & Yon
Inspired in part by the Alphabet Quartet series, four powerful authors have come together here to examine a dozen important concepts in mathematics through short short fiction pieces. Mathematics may not be science but in many ways it is the language that science is spoken in. The stories proceed in chronological order with the oldest developed concept going first.
The Numbers Quartet
Inspired in part by the Alphabet Quartet series, four powerful authors have come together here to examine a dozen important concepts in mathematics through short short fiction pieces. Mathematics may not be science but in many ways it is the language that science is spoken in. The stories proceed in chronological order with the oldest developed concept going first.
by Stephen Gaskell
Pi: a transcendental number equal to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter that has an approx. value of 3.14159--symbol π, earliest known textual approximation dates from the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus c. 1900 BC.
Published on Jan 4, 2012
by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Golden ratio: In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The Greeks usually attributed discovery of this concept to Pythagoras or his followers. Approx. value 1.61803398874989--symbol φ, first known written definition dates from Euclid's Elements c. 300 BC.
Published on Jan 11, 2012
by Nancy Fulda
Zero: the arithmetical symbol denoting the absence of all magnitude or quantity--symbol 0, first conceived and manipulated as an actual number in India c. 458 AD.
Published on Jan 18, 2012
by Nancy Fulda
i: the imaginary quantity equal to the square root of minus one--symbol i, first quantified through the work of Rafael Bombelli in 1572 AD.
Published on Jan 25, 2012
by Aliette de Bodard
Exponential: the transcendental number that is the base of Napierian or natural logarithms, approximately equal to 2.71828. The number also has applications in probability theory--symbol e, first referenced in work by John Napier in 1618 AD.
Published on Feb 1, 2012
by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Standard gravity: the standard acceleration due to free fall is the nominal acceleration of an object in a vacuum near the surface of the Earth. Approximate value of 9.81 ms-2--symbol g, derived from the law of universal gravitation stated in Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, first published in 1687 AD.
Published on Feb 8, 2012
by Stephen Gaskell
Elementary charge: the electric charge carried by a single proton, or equivalently, the absolute value of the electric charge carried by a single electron, that has an approx. value of 1.602 x 10-19 Coulombs--symbol e, first unified into a coherent concept through experiments performed by Dr. Michael Faraday in 1839 AD
Published on Feb 15, 2012
