Mathematics: A Poetic Approach

I'm working on a laboratory manual for undergraduate mathematics. One of the "image problems" of mathematics and mathematicians is that non-mathematicians generally think mathematics is all about x's and y's, and odd manipulations that follow a certain set of cookbook rules. They don't see in mathematics what mathematicians see: they don't see the poetry.

Mathematics: A Poetic Approach will (I hope) address this issue. I feel that algebra, calculus, etc., are to mathematics what English grammar is to Shakespeare. Of course, everyone wants to write good...but the point is that the grammatical structure of the English language is not what is beautiful and exciting about it.

I'd also like to write a mathematics book that looks at mathematics the way mathematicians do. For example, in one section on the mathematics of voting, different possible "majority rules" schemes are looked at, and the existence of a definite pattern is revealed: either one person has all the power (and is a dictator), even in a nominal democracy, or the three share equal power.

I'll keep this web page updated as developments go by...

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