Under the category of “Somebody Had To Figure It Out,” Dr. Andrew Simoson of King University (Bristol, Tennessee) used calculus to determine the shape of the island of Utopia in the 500-year-old book by Sir Thomas More based on the description of island given in the book’s introduction.
News article: https://www.insidescience.org/news/math-maps-island-thomas-mores-utopia
Paper by Dr. Simoson: http://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2016/bridges2016-65.html
