In this cute story, a thirteen year old girl becomes good friends with the square root of eight. From "Squate", she learns not only facts about math but also things about other people who are working with him. Consequently, she is able to surprise her math teacher by saying things like:
| (quoted from Squate)
They might not be regular integers, but they’re certainly algebraic integers. You know what algebraic integers are, right, Mr. Henderson? Roots of a monic polynomial with integer coefficients?
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and she also knows when classmates are cheating on their homework...or when teachers are cheating on their spouses.
Speaking of spouses, she also learns things about the lives of the numbers themselves. For example:
| (quoted from Squate)
Positive square roots are male, negative square roots are female. Like Squate’s wife, Minus Squate. It’s sexist, I know. But that’s just how it is in Quadworld, where they live. Only they don’t use terms like ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ there. They’re called . . . conjugates, or something.
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The author is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Philosophy at Western Illinois University. When he sent me an early draft of the story, I suggested that he consider sending it to The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, where it was eventually published.
Citation:
Tom Blackford, "Squate," Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 12 Issue 2 (July 2022), pages 563-578. Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol12/iss2/38 |
