Subject: Re: [HM] Mathematics as Theater
From: Julio Gonzalez Cabillon (jgc@adinet.com.uy)
Date: Wed May 03 2000 - 17:52:02 EDT
Dear All,
A few years ago, Yannick DELBECQUE compiled, with a little help from many
friends, a list of texts and mathematical plays (inter alia) that could be
used to make a dramatic presentation. I append below these references (in
no particular order).
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1) Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology" with a foreword by C P Snow would
provide a basis for "a day in the life ..." if someone had the interest to
do a little creative dramatization.
2) Dialogue between the professor and the student about the nature of proof
in Reuben Hersh/Phil Davis "The Mathematical Experience" (brief but very
provocative).
3) A little article on performing Lakatos' dialogues:
D. Conibear & J. Poland, "Presenting a mathematical play", _Mathematics
Magazine_ 50 (1987) 213-5.
4) R.C. Laubenbacher and D.J. Pengelley, "Gauss, Eisenstein, and the
'Third' Proof of the Quadratic Reciprocity Theorem: _Ein kleines
Schauspiel_", _Mathematical Intelligencer_ 16 (1994), 67-72.
5) The dialogues in Douglas Hofstadter's book "Goedel, Escher, Bach".
6) The dispute between Fermat and Descartes.
An account is in Michael Mahoney's biography of Fermat. Further details
are available in the correspondence between the protagonists and Mersenne.
7) Friedrich Durrenmatt's play "The Physicists", which featuring characters
in an asylum who think they are Newton and Einstein.
8) The lesson in Plato's Meno, 81e - 85d.
David Fowler have also written a sequence of epilogues to this, which
are in his book "The Mathematics of Plato's Academy".
9) Gavin Hitchcock, "The 'Grand Entertainment': Dramatising the Birth and
Development of Mathematical Concepts", _For The Learning of Mathematics_
12:1(1992), 21-27.
10) Gavin Hitchcock: "Dramatizing the Birth and Adventures of Mathematical
Concepts: Two dialogues", in _Vita Mathematica_, ed. by R. Calinger, MAA,
1996, pp. 27-41.
11) "Math Talk: Mathematical Ideas in Poems for Two Voices" by T. Pappas.
published by Wide World Publishing PO Box 476, San Carlos, CA. 94070.
12) Two books by A. Renyi: "Dialogues on Mathematics" and "Letters on
Probability".
13) A takeoff of Steve Allens's TV show of the fifties "Meeting of the
Minds".
14) Ionesco's play "La lecon." It's written in French.
15) "On Mathematics and Mathematicians", by R.E. Moritz, Dover, 1942
(republished recently by the MAA).
16) "Out of the Mouths of Mathematicians", by R. Shcmalz, MAA, 1993.
17) Lewis Carroll's "Euclid and his Modern Rivals".
18) Hans Werner Henze's Second Violin Concerto is a setting for baritone
of Goedel's Theorem (not a text, but it sounds interesting...).
19) "Pythagorean Philosophy - A Greek Tragicomedy", by Mike Reekie.
20) Theses two plays: "Hamlet and Pfister Forms" (a tragedy in four acts,
1992) by Jan Minac, and "Demuskin Groups as Galois Groups" (A tragicomedy
based upon two joint mathematical papers, 1991) by Jan Minac and Roger Ware.
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Feedback (comments, criticisms, corrections, additions ...) on this digest
would be appreciated.
Cheers, Julio GC
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