Poetemáticas 8 : Lewis Carroll

Ilustración: Turrilandia

Nonsense verse is a type of poetry that mathematicians usually enjoy. Perhaps this is so because mathematical discovery itself has a playful aspect--playing with non-sense in an effort to tease the sense out of it.  Lewis Carroll, English writer and mathematician, often has his characters offer speeches that are a clever mix of sense and nonsense. Let’s read the words of the Butcher in Carroll’s nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. The Butcher is explaining why 2+1=3 and his calculation looks like this:
      [ (3 + 7 + 10) x (1000-8) ]  / 992   -   17   =  3
It is a true calculation, but would have worked as well for any other starting number besides 3.

    Taking Three as the subject to reason about—
     A convenient number to state—
     We add Seven, and Ten, and then multiply out
     By One Thousand diminished by Eight.

     The result we proceed to divide, as you see,
     By Nine Hundred and Ninety and Two.
     Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be
     Exactly and perfectly true.

Os matemáticos adoitan gustar  da poesía “Nonsense” (sen sentido), quizais porque tamén as matemáticas teñen algo de divertimento, de xogo con aquilo que parece non ter sentido tentando atoparlle lóxica. Lewis Carroll, escritor e matemático inglés,  a miúdo dota os seus personaxes dun discurso no que se mestura a lóxica e o sen sentido. Leamos estas palabras do carniceiro no poema “A caza do Snark”. O carniceiro explica por que 2+1=3 do seguinte xeito:

      [ (3 + 7 + 10) x (1000-8) ]  / 992   -   17   =  3
O cálculo é correcto pero tamén o sería con calquera outro número, non só co 3.

Tomando o tres como base deste razoamento-

Unha cifra moi fácil de escribir-

Sumámoslle sete e dez, e despois multiplicámolo

Por mil menos oito.

Despois, como ves, dividimos o resultado

Entre novecentos noventa e dous.

Logo restamos dezasete, e a resposta debe

Ser exacta e perfectamente certa.