MathFiction: Into Thin Air (Colin Adams)

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Into Thin Air (2000)

Colin Adams
(click on names to see more mathematical fiction by the same author)
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This was the first of Colin Adams' ``Mathematically Bent'' columns for the Mathematical Intelligencer, published back in Vol.22, No. 1, 2000. It combines many of the analogies between mountain climbing and math research (e.g., accepting a challenge `because it is there', different teams attempting different `assaults on the same peak', etc.) and combines them in a single short story about collaborators trying to prove the Poincare Conjecture.

The story was republished in the collection Riot at the Calc Exam.... in 2009.

More information about this work can be found at another page on this Website.
(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 Into Thin Air

According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:

Journey to the Center of Mathematics by Colin Adams
Riot at the Calc Exam and Other Mathematically Bent Stories by Colin Adams
Towel Season by Ron Carlson
Mangum, P.I. by Colin Adams
Rumpled Stiltskin by Colin Adams
A Proof of God by Colin Adams
The Romance of Mathematics: Being the Original Researches of a Lady Professor of Girtham College... by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
Euclid and His Modern Rivals by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)
Mathematically Bent by Colin Adams
Journey into Geometries by Marta Sved

Ratings for Into Thin Air:

Ratings

Have 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:
5/5 (1 votes)

Literary Quality:
4/5 (1 votes)

Categories:

Genre	Humorous, Didactic,
Motif	Academia, Proving Theorems, Female Mathematicians,
Topic	Geometry/Topology/Trigonometry, Real Mathematics,
Medium	Short Stories,

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(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)