Category: Popular Culture

Mathematical Allusions in Shantaram (Part 1)

I recently finished the novel Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. As I’m not a professional book reviewer, let me instead quote from the Amazon review:

Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption are only a few of the ingredients in Shantaram, a massive, over-the-top, mostly autobiographical novel. Shantaram is the name given Mr. Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means “man of God’s peace,” which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. He served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a string of armed robberies performed to support his heroin addiction, which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his daughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for Greg Roberts, that’s only the beginning.

He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers, an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000 people and Linbaba becomes the resident “doctor.” With a prison knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicated relationship, and Karla’s connections are murky from the outset.

While it was a cracking good read, what struck me particularly were the surprising mathematical allusions that the author used throughout the novel. In this mini-series, I’d like to explore the ones that I found.

In this first installment, the narrator describes a life-or-death situation as he is being choked:

He was a hard man. He didn’t give up. His hands squeezed tighter. My neck was strong and the muscles were well developed, but I knew he had the strength to kill me. My hand reached, groping for the pistol in my pocket. I had to shoot him. I had to kill him. That was all right. I didn’t care. The air in my lungs was spent, and my brain was exploding in Mandelbrot whirls of colored light, and I was dying, and I wanted to kill him.

Shantaram, Chapter 25

Someone being choked to death might be prosaically described as “seeing stars,” but the author instead to choose the more vivid imagery of “exploding in Mandelbrot whirls of colored light.” The Mandelbrot set is a fractal that solves a famous mathematical problem:

And the Mandelbrot set is quite colorful and complex, which might indeed be a better description than “seeing stars” of what might be going through someone’s mind when being choked to death. Although somewhat dated, here’s my favorite Mandelbrot zoom video:

The Rocket Scientist Quarterbacking an Unlikely NFL Playoff Contender

I greatly enjoyed this Wall Street Journal article about Joshua Dobbs, currently the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. The opening paragraphs:

When quarterback Joshua Dobbs subbed in for the Minnesota Vikings last week and led them to a dramatic victory just days after they traded for him, it amazed his teammates whose names he barely knew when he stepped onto the field. 

It also left his former colleagues dumbfounded—which isn’t exactly easy to do considering they’re rocket scientists. 

“The quickness that he absorbed that playbook is astounding,” says Scott Colloredo, NASA’s Director of Engineering at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

Before Dobbs was a journeyman-turned-sensation for the Vikings, he majored in aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee, where he was the rare SEC football player to take grueling science classes while also preparing to play in the NFL. Even more remarkably, Dobbs has kept up with the science while making millions of dollars in the pros: he has spent two offseasons moonlighting at NASA, where his bosses give him rave reviews and say he was just like any other engineer working on the Artemis program, except for how he made the football fans in the office giddy with excitement. 

His co-workers these days are even happier to have him in their orbit. 

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 275): Florida Georgia Line

Let P be the set of all people, and let f(x) be the amount that x loves you. Translate the logical statement

\forall x \in P(f(x) \le f(\hbox{God}) \land f(x) \le f(\hbox{your mama}) \land f(x) \le f(\hbox{I})).

This matches the chorus of the crossover hit “God, Your Mama, and Me” by Florida Georgia Line, featuring the Backstreet Boys.

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 274): George Jones

Let T be the set of all times, and let L(t) be the statement “He loves her at time t. Translate the logical statement

\forall t \in T(((t < 0) \Longrightarrow L(t)) \land ((t \ge 0) \Longrightarrow \sim L(t))),

where time 0 is today.

Of course, this matches the quintessential country song “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones.

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 273): Beauty and the Beast

Let P be the set of all people, let S(x) be the statement “x is slick as Gaston,” let Q(x) be the statement “x is quick as Gaston,” and let N(x) be the statement “x‘s neck is as thick as Gaston’s neck.” Translate the logical statement

\forall x \in P \sim(S(x) \lor Q(x) \lor N(x))

This is just one example that I pulled from the silly song “Gaston” from “Beauty and the Beast.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVdgaSuAjII&t=32s

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 272): Beauty and the Beast

Let T be the set of all things, let D(x) be the statement “x is a dinner,” let F(x) be the statement “x is in France,” and let S(x) be the statement “x is second-best.” Translate the logical statement

\forall x \in T (D(x) \land F(x) \Longrightarrow \sim S(x))

This matches a line from the incurably catchy “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast.”

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 271): Pirates of the Caribbean

Let T be the set of all times, and let D(t) be the statement “At time t, you can trust a dishonest man to be dishonest.” Translate the logical statement

\forall t \in T (D(t))

This matches a line from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 270): Naruto Shippuden

Let P be the set of all places, let L(x) be the statement “There is light at x,” and let S(x) be the statement “There are shadows to be found at x.” Translate the logical statement

\forall x \in P (L(x) \Longrightarrow S(x))

This matches one of the lines from the anime “Naruto Shippuden.”

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 269): Hamilton

Let p be the statement “We lay a strong enough foundation,” let q be the statement “We’ll pass it on to you,” let r be the statement “We’ll give the world to you,” and let s be the statement “You’ll blow us all away.” Translate the logical statement

p \Longrightarrow q \land r \land s

This matches one of the lines from the lullaby “Dear Theodosia” from the hit musical “Hamilton.”

green line

Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 268): Eurhythmics

Let T be the set of all things, let D(x) be the statement “x is a sweet dream,” and let M(x) be the statement “x is made of this.” Translate the logical statement

\forall x \in T (D(x) \Longrightarrow M(x))

This matches the title and opening line of “Sweet Dreams are Made of This” by Eurythmics.

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Context: This semester, I taught discrete mathematics for the first time. Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.