MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Final Exam (2011)
Robert Dawson
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A math professor nearing retirement and displeased with trends in academia decides to use his final exam (the last he will ever give) to get his revenge on the cheating students in his calculus class.

This very nicely written story appears in the July 2011 issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. It includes quite a few explicit references to real calculus problems and insight into the way a college professor might view his students.

Contributed by Will

I just read this story and found it interesting except that I found the ending to be a bit abrupt. I would have liked to read about the aftermath of the exam.

More information about this work can be found at scholarship.claremont.edu.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Final Exam
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Monster by Alex Kasman
  2. The Integral: A Horror Story by Colin Adams
  3. On the Occasion Of Your Graduation by Robert Dawson
  4. Gifted by Marc Webb (director) / Tom Flynn (writer)
  5. Stand and Deliver by Ramon Menendez
  6. Damned Souls and Statistics by Robert Dawson
  7. Math Girls by Hiroshi Yuki
  8. Proof by Induction by José Pablo Iriarte
  9. Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine [Lene din ensomhet langsomt mot min] by Klara Hveberg
  10. Axiom of Dreams by Arula Ratnakar
Ratings for Final Exam:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
3.5/5 (2 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
3.5/5 (2 votes)
..

Categories:
Genre
MotifAcademia, Math Education,
TopicAnalysis/Calculus/Differential,
MediumShort Stories, Available Free Online,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)