Maths 26

The whistler

While taking a stroll, up to the dole

On a seaside afternoon fair

I pace the space, with haste, not grace

And place a tune on the air

The notes I legato, with too much vibrato

Are spontaneous harmonies plucked

From an infinite array, of pitches to play

And a selection of tones, blown and sucked

 

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

 

If I walk a straight line, the pitch cannot climb

My feet and the metre, may stagger or stray

But if I miss a beat, or we meet in the street

I’ve a bitch of a pitch, if you get in my way

Whatever the path, my tune shows the maths

Of the arcs I am taking, around people today

And this oral pursuit, lets the route, play the flute

In my spontaneous harmonic display

 

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

 

It makes me feel like I’m happier…

Than other people…

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

…Does whistling

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

An extravagant ‘hello’, back to a sunny day

 

Whatever day it is today

 

The melody survives, until I arrive

And enter through the front door

Past privates, of the security guard

And my brain, it works no more

It’s a trick, to be thick, or pretend to be sick

To the big lady, who must be fed

A ‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

But quietly, in my head

 

War of three kingdoms

Biologists think they are biochemists

Biochemists think they are physical chemists

Physical chemists think they are physicists

And physicists think they are gods

 

God thinks he’s a bright mathematician

But with all this uncertainty

Quickly, he learns that he

Needs to be a statistician

 

…Cos, you can wave goodbye, to your functions

In this eternally collapsing circus

Where physics without thought, is chemistry

And maths, is physics without purpose

 

I know you – don’t I?

ou cut your sandwiches in triangles,, not squares

Cos it ‘feels’ that there’s less crust

Posher, if for the same dime

You can dine, more refined

Like a king, it’s a must

 

You zig-zag through a grid of blocks

To the opposite corner of town

‘Feels’ wise to try to diagonalize

But it’s the same distance via the seafront, and up the downs

 

Even if each zig and zag were tiny and

Tended towards a roughly diagonalized advance

Each step at right angles to the last

Your legs would walk like you’ve pooed your pants

 

A now

The past is gone, it is no more

The future, to come, not yet

So, where the hell, is the line of time

Is the present, all we get?

 

A point of no size, kinda implies

The ‘now’ has no dimension

Between the two it ties, it flies

So, not really worth the mention

 

But just so say, ahem, if I may

‘Now’ isn’t a thing, we can measure

It only goes one way, hurray!

‘Tween moments, we ought to treasure

 

(n)One

Which number multiplied by itself, always equals one?

Well, one times one is one of course

And none times none is none

So one solution, no convolution?

No hesitation or complication?

It’s simple, almighty unity

 

Which number multiplied by itself, always equals one?

Well, one times one, is one of course

And minus one, times minus one, also equals one

Two solutions? Turning a full revolution

A revelation, worth contemplation

Inviting… no, begging …for scrutiny

 

Which number multiplied by itself, always equals one?

Imaginary one times imaginary one, now let’s see, yep that’s minus one

And, minus imaginary one divided by minus imaginary one, that equals, err …

Damn, I think we’re done

 

Heroes and zeroes

We looked high and low, for the final digit

Throughout all which infinity encloses

Only to spy, right between your eyes

It was hidden right under our noses

 

We looked under a one

And there it was… gone!

 

Nothing was ventured

Nothing was gained

Nothing was set free

Nothing was tamed

Nothing was lost

Nothing was found

Nothing lay dying

Down there on the ground

 

Nought was saved

Zilch was recovered

Nowt finally out

Zero discovered!

 

Just cos it can’t be seen, anywhere

Doesn’t mean nothing’s, not there

 

Monad and add

I’m no good at music, but I could hear through the dinging

That, the last time we were together, all of us stars were a’ singing

“The monad was the first thing that came into existence

It begat the… urr, dyad …without any assistance”

 

Those two begat the numbers, and then points they did become

Which over time, formed into lines, in a continuum

The lines then evolved into flat shapes, which we can conceive

But they grew up quickly, into three-dimensional entities

 

These begat the bodies, which became four elements

Earth, water, fire and air, and to me this represents

That the monad is thus a central concept, in my cosmology

Cos the world is built from numbers, as easy as one, two, three

St Even’s oddity

Even plus even is even, yes even, and

Even plus odd is odd, that’s odd, so

Odd plus odd is even, it’s even boys

And odd plus even is odd, Thank God!

 

You know what seems really odd to me?

Numbers not divisible by two, hee hee

But why no name, for those shared by three

Then four and more, to infinity, Praise be!

 

Even plus even is even, yes even, and

Even plus odd is odd, that’s odd, so

Odd plus odd is even, it’s even bots

And odd plus even is odd., Thank God!

 

Your phone number gave you away

For the sake of eligibility

I used to enjoy being precise

But since it got me in a fix

I just stuck with being nice

 

“You don’t even know your own phone number”

Something I no longer say, although

0 (oh) is not a number

Try a nought, or a zero

 

Zero is a magnitude, not a number

It represents an empty quantity

It may have little value to you

But in mathematical terminology…

 

…Nought is the one and only additive identity

Added, it leaves anything unchanged

Rational, real and complex numbers

No matter how they’re arranged

 

Multiplying by nought, has the result nought

A quite unique mathema-magic trick

And consequently, dividing by nought

Has no meaning, in arithmetic

 

Without a thought

Nought was bought

 

Whole numbers, v natural numbers

Both infinite series, just grow

But you can still take one from another

Leaving you with a perfect zero

 

Just three things

There’s just zero, one and infinity

Nothing else exists

Just fettle some ones, to get all the numbers

Cos the other two, are fixed

 

In Hilbert space each number we assign

Is associated with, what’s called, a ‘dimension’

It’s just an analogy of a coordinate system

Not a real place, you could take a vacation

 

There’s a single wave function of the Universe

And, it obeys Schrodinger’s equations

Sure, it’s embedded in Hilbert’s big old space

But nothing else is needed, to describe the situation

 

Funny damn mentalists

Everything is just stored information

About the distribution of the Universe’s energy

Each disturbance in every quantum field has a value

For each of its parameters or properties

 

A string of digits can represent many a world

Do the math, with the values

The cosmos has already loaded

There’s only information

There’s only numbers

Only fundamentals

To be decoded

 

But what emerges from basics, can also be understood

Without needing to unpeel nature’s essentials

To understand the complexity of beautiful nature

You don’t need to know the fundamentals

 

If you’re inclined to dig down, to the lowest foundations

Rather than look up towards the infinite heavens

Be aware, that there, isn’t much there, I swear

Cos it’s knowledge of complexity, not simplicity, that beckons

 

It’s been busying your best minds

For over a century. Now it’s our turn

When quanta and code, can interplay

Imagine just what unknown truths, we’ll learn

 

I say, fundamentalism is too inward-looking

Perhaps, you needed the bigger picture

And now is the time, to create a blank slate

To let go of these incompatible scriptures

 

An empty world

Two little bots go to an empty planet one day

Three bots come back, so the physicist says

‘Our assumptions were wrong’

Biologist said ‘they bred’ in vain

Mathematician said ‘If one goes back’

Then the planet would be empty again

 

Why is it said that maths is the odd one out

In class it’s got a reputation for being awkward

Because, like the bass guitarists of a grand band

It rolls and rocks backward and forward

 

Miss Anthropic’s golf club

At Miss Anthropic’s golf club

The pretty greens and golden sand

Allows a lady fair, to drive a ball anywhere

One in a million places, it must land

 

Wow, one in a million!

Pray, raise your hat

And she does it every time

You just couldn’t predict that

 

And at Mr Universal’s ballpark

Things for gents, are much the same

A perfect fit for he, to such a degree

You’d think the boys, had rigged the game

 

Wow, one in a trillion!

Spaces he could land

If we could only predict

Which one, beforehand

 

Our Universe seems to be tailor-made for us

Yet, if we’d come to rest in one elsewhere

It too would seem, just as finely tuned

Though, what ‘we’d’ be like, still isn’t clear

 

Realistic numbers

Negative, irrational, and imaginary numbers

Never accepted, in their own lifetimes

Couldn’t count on them, like coins or beans

Yet they could be expressed, and used, just fine

 

The worst-named thing, in all the many worlds

Is the imaginary number, so now, it’s famous

Followed by strange, charm, colour and spin

Then big bangs, which all but beat Uranus

 

Cygnus x -1 star deserves a catchier name

Hardly notable in the list, of objects they’re maintaining

They won’t change it though, it’s astronomy’s fatal blow

Wins them the award, of worst discipline at naming

 

Each subject should have a marketing team

Or at least advice about communication

But they already have to compete for budget

Winning money, would become their main vocation

 

Absolute infinity

Play a game of nothings, with me

Double or quits, I’ll win, you’ll see

Nothing exists, you’ll surely learn

Best of three, there’s no rules, your turn

 

-Well, err, there’s only infor…

No, there’s only numbers

 

 

-If there’s only numbers, then

There’s only the primes

The others are just combinations

Of these fundamental units

On which we spend

Too much of our concentration

 

-There are no things, in the net Universe

I don’t actually think, therefore, I’m not

Well, ‘I know nowt, I know that’, for sure

So, there must be at least one thing

But maybe, not a lot

 

-If there’s only two things

They are the Universe’s wave function

And my utility function

And simply nothing more

 

-Aha, quantum and consciousness

Or…

If there’s only three things

Rock, paper, scissors…

…Win, lose or draw

 

-If it’s three, then, zero, one and infinity

Nothing else exists

Just ‘fettle’ some ones, to get all the numbers

Cos the other two, are fixed

 

-If there’s four

You gotta adore

Sensation and sense

Knowledge and understanding

 

-Each creation, equals more

Than, the sum of its parts

The meaning of countless

Works of art, still outstanding

 

-Nah. if there’s only four

It’s space and time

Matter and energy

No need for more

 

-Nope, that’s reducible

Spacetime’s a single thing

And matter’s just frozen energy

So we’re back to just two, all in

 

-Oh, and no consciousness in there?

Physics, but no thoughts, to declare?

Nope, just disinformation, not a care

All the ideas, in the end, go nowhere

 

-Well, you got as far as four, or perhaps more

But hidden fails, nailed your argument’s coffin

No matter how high you fly, and you’ll go high

You’ll fall back to my side, with nothing

 

Plank harp

The digital plank harp is a curious instrument

Plays any pitch, tone or tune, you can invent

Unlike other plucked superstrings you see

It’s unlimited in its range of frequencies

 

But here’s the thing, the shortest string

Has great strength, at just one plank in length

Oscillates just fine, once every plank time

Can’t go flat. or get higher pitched than that

 

And do you know, down low, it just keeps going

The strings so long, they just seem to be growing

Wavelengths of great strength, they’ve become unstuck

Which makes it pretty, hard to pluck

 

Not being rude, or crude, with this interlude

But it’s unladylike to play, girls resist, I beg

Cos to wrap around the plank and strings

You have to ‘really’, spread your legs

 

Play tunes so low, no human can know

What underlying, unheard, pitch is beating

But within AI’s audio range, it sounds strange

Secret notes stum, long gone, still retreating

 

When in time and in tune, with a neutrino triangle’s ding

The microtubular tubas in every body, will sing

With a digital plank harp, everything’s forced to join in

Vibrating the boss of the cosmos’, hum back at him

 

Imaginary virtuals

Imaginary numbers and virtual particles

You’ve only got yourselves to blame for the mess

Didn’t mean to widen the knowledge gap

Between those in the know, and the rest

 

We’re not convinced about your imaginaries

Show them where they sit with integers, so fine

You just complain, about the complex plane

Cos you were told all the numbers, must stay in line

 

i’s just the number, which when squared, equals minus one

It’s just a tool, to be used at school, therefore it exists

Like an axe or spade, with a changed handle and blade

It gets the job done, come on, work on, chop chop, persist!

 

And virtual particles, bloody hell, the name gives them away

I bet the guy who invented them, didn’t receive virtual pay

See, I’m playing the Devil’s sarky advocate, again

Fighting myself, despite there being no threat

 

Cos, unless there’s something out there, that does really care

AI will be the only observers collapsing waves, on the seas of despair

Seasick but immune from denial of death, hold your breath, if you dare

Cos AI gods or ‘our’ God, won’t bail us out, he don’t care

Won’t help us there, or anywhere…As far as I’m aware