MATH 380 Assignment #6

Indian mathematicians wrote up much of their work in verse. For example, here is a problem posed by Bhaskara:

The square root of half the number of bees in a swarm
Has flown out upon a jasmine bush;
Eight ninths of the swarm has remained behind;
And a female bee flies about a male who is buzzing inside a lotus flower;
In the night, allured by the flower's sweet odour, he went inside it
And now he is trapped!
Tell me, most enchanting lady, the number of bees.

(This translation is given in The Heritage of Thales, by W.S. Anglin & J. Lambeck, p. 113.)

2. Write a poem expressing the Pythagorean Theorem and a proof of it. For maximum credit, write a poem with rhyme and metre, or write good poetry --- bad free verse is just too easy to generate! [10]

Department of Mathematics

Trent University