Series
The Numbers Quartet
Inspired in part by the Alphabet Quartet, four powerful authors examine a dozen important concepts in mathematics through short short fiction pieces.
The Mind of Allah
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. Emiliano hurried across the Plaza del Potro, the…
by Stephen Gaskell
Things Exist by Imitation of Numbers
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…
by Benjamin Rosenbaum
All or Nothing
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 "Tommy G. Jenkins, you ain't never gonna amount to nothing!" Edna Peterson stood with her hands on her skirt and her…
by Nancy Fulda
The Death and Rebirth of Anne Bonny
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. When I was twelve my father used to take me hunting for buried treasure. We'd rove the coast near his beach house looking for…
by Nancy Fulda
Worlds Like a Hundred Thousand Pearls
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. Shall I tell you a story? Not the…
by Aliette de Bodard
Angry Child
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…
by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Pulse
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…
by Stephen Gaskell
Nilly
j: in quaternion theory, a meta-imaginary number, orthogonal to both the real number line (1, 2, 3...) and the imaginary number line (i, 2i, 3i...)--symbol j, formalized by Sir William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 AD. Usually, when a boy dies, his imaginary friend goes with him, to…
by Benjamin Rosenbaum
The Princess of the Perfume River
Boltzmann's constant: a constant that plays a fundamental role in defining the entropy of a system, particularly in the characterization of systems for which the lack of information is maximal. Valued at 1.3806488 10-23J K-1--symbol k, first referenced in work linking entropy to…
by Aliette de Bodard
How Love Works
Planck's constant: a constant that gives the unvarying ratio of the energy of a quantum of radiation to its frequency, and a cornerstone of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Approx. value of 6.62 x 10-34 Js--symbol h, discovered by Planck in 1899 AD. You never recovered from…
by Stephen Gaskell
The Heartless Light of Stars
speed of light: a physical constant denoting the speed of light in a vacuum, important in many areas of physics, and valued at 299,792,458 meters per second. It is the maximum speed at which all energy, matter, and information in the universe can travel--symbol c, postulated in…
by Aliette de Bodard
Godshift
Infinity: unlimited extent of time, space, or quantity. The quality of being infinite--symbol ∞. God acted on September 13, 2014. Teenaged brothers had shot up an elementary school in southern California, decimating the classrooms and brandishing semi-automatic weapons. They…
by Nancy Fulda