Mathematics and Literature

Award: Carl B. Allendoerfer

Year of Award: 1983

Publication Information: Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 55, (1982), pp. 81-95

Summary: Mathematics provides writers with a rich source of themes, images, and metaphors.

Link to Article

About the Author: (from Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 55 (1982)) Don Koehler is a professor of mathematics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and has taught at Hanover College, DePauw University, and the University of Newcastle in Australia. He has also served as a faculty intern at the J. M. Smucker Company in Orrville, Ohio, and as a Research Associate at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. To help enable students to relate mathematics to other disciplines, he has taught courses relating mathematics to biology, to music, and to literature. His article is an outgrowth of his experiences in the mathematics and literature course.