MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Imaginary Numbers : An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings (1999)
William Frucht (editor)
Highly Rated!

Although it is nice to see a more recent collection of mathematical stories (published in 1999), I'm afraid that many of these works seem only tenuously connected to mathematics at best. Stories about the many-world interpretation of quantum mechanics and poems written by computers, for instance, are apparently "mathematical" to the editor, though to me they appear misplaced in a collection with this title. Still, I am glad to have found and read this collection for at least a few of its entries have stayed with me. (Most notably the short story "Schwarzschild's Radius" has haunted me since I read it weeks ago!)
For more details (and more of my opinions) see the review of this book which was published in the AMS Notices.

Contributed by Henri

This is a classic collection. Half to two-thirds of the stories are amazing. Even the so-so ones was probably just over my head.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(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 Imaginary Numbers : An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Mathenauts: Tales of Mathematical Wonder by Rudy Rucker (editor)
  2. The Mathematics of Magic by L. Sprague de Camp / Fletcher Pratt
  3. Intoxicating Heights (Höhenrausch. Die Mathematik des XX. Jahrhunderts in zwanzig Gehirnen) by Dietmar Dath
  4. Mathe-Matti by Anuradha Mahasinghe
  5. Do Androids Dream of Symmetric Sheaves?: And Other Mathematically Bent Stories by Colin Adams
  6. Reality Conditions: short mathematical fiction by Alex Kasman
  7. The Mathematical Magpie: Being more stories, mainly transcendental, plus subjects of essays, rhymes, music, anecdotes, ... by Clifton Fadiman (editor)
  8. Fantasia Mathematica : Being a Set of Stories, Together With a Group of Oddments and Diversions, All Drawn from ... by Clifton Fadiman (editor)
  9. Number Stories: Learning Arithmetic Through the Adventures of Ralph and His Schoolmates by Alhambra G. Deming
  10. Number Stories of Long Ago by David Eugene Smith
Ratings for Imaginary Numbers : An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings:
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:
3.75/5 (6 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
3.85/5 (7 votes)
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Categories:
GenreScience Fiction,
Motif
Topic
MediumShort Stories, Collection,

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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)