Poem- “Math and Beauty”

“Math and Beauty”

Some people say,

“Math is beautiful.”

I was a math major in college.

Is their comment true?

Well, I hate to disappoint you…

Yes, we use math for beautiful things.

But, we also use math for ugly things.

You can count the number of golden apples.

But, you can also count the number of garbage cans.

You can count the stars.

But, you can count the dangerous aliens who probably want to hurt us.

We can count good movies.

We can count bad movies.

We can count reviewers.

We can count critics.

We can count A grades.

We can count F grades.

We can count acts of marriage.

We can count acts of divorce.

Sure, you can count sheep while you sleep, but you can still get a nightmare.

Hospitals use math and the math can get ugly in a doctor’s office.

Some kinds of math are not beautiful, but disappointing.

Some kinds of math are only bad news for us.

We probably do not wish for negative kinds of math.

Depending on the case, there should be no math for bad news in the first place.

Yeah, you can use math for unhealthy food, but you probably shouldn’t.

Mathematics needs to be a “neutral science”, not a beautiful painting.

Do you know how much math Earth keeps record of for pain and suffering?

That’s not really beautiful; that’s a tragedy.

Even correct math is not always going to be pretty and nice.

We may need correct math for ugly things as well.

Imagine… math for bandaids, math for aspirin, math for illness.

Math will often serve as a warning, not a beauty.

Yes, we wish for beautiful things, but the math can be bad news for us.

Do people even know how many people do not know each other?

Math can help us determine how many people do not know each other.

It’s math.

But, it’s not exactly beautiful in this case.

https://www.deviantart.com/gameuniverso/art/Math-and-Beauty-992839374