Mathematics &Poetry Entropy | 31 May 2008
0- Zero !
Philosophic
in its complex, ovoid emptiness,
a skillful pundit coined it as a sort
of stopgap doorstop for those
quaint equations
Romans never
dreamt of. In form completely clever
and discrete—a mirror come unsilvered,
loose watch face without the works,
a hollowed globe
from tip to toe
unbroken, it evades the grappling
hooks of mass, tilts the thin rim of no thing,
remains embryonic sum,
non-cogito.
-by Hailey Leithauser
on 02 Jun 2008 at 12:02 am 1.michele roohani said …
Even though the modern numeration originated in India, the fascination with Zero is universal and what a great way to show this amazement by a poem…
Having used “the universal History of Numbers” http://www.amazon.com/Universal-History-Numbers-Prehistory-Invention/dp/0471375683
for years as a fun reference book, i have been tempted to read ZERO http://www.users.cloud9.net/~cgseife/zero.html but i am still looking for the courage to do it!
The chapter titles are cute too:
* Life Without Zero
* The Birth of Zero
* The Fearsome Properties of Nothing