MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Feigenbaum Number (1995)
Nancy Kress
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A postdoc who perceives reality different than other people (he sees something like the Platonic ideals people ought to be) works with a professor on combining chaos theory with particle physics. I'm not sure how these three ideas fit together, but in the end it works pretty well!

The author has explained that she is "math-impaired", and so it is not surprising that some of the math is not quite right. (Her description of strange attractors is way off base, and the Feigenbaum constant is something specific to logistic-like dynamical systems and not some sort of general phenomenon associated to chaotic systems as she suggests.) But, some of the math is right, and even the stuff that isn't feels basically right if you don't think about it too much.

There are also a number of scenes in which the postdoc is doing a terrible job of teaching an undergraduate class which may be of interest to visitors to this site.

Originally appeared in Omni (Winter 1995) and now available at GoogleBooks.

More information about this work can be found at books.google.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 Feigenbaum Number
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons
  2. Proof by Induction by José Pablo Iriarte
  3. Improbable by Adam Fawer
  4. Risqueman by Mike Wood
  5. Distress by Greg Egan
  6. Luminous by Greg Egan
  7. Strange Attractors by Charles Soule (author) / Greg Scott (Illustrator)
  8. Snow by Geoffrey A. Landis
  9. Calculating the Speed of Heartbreak by Wendy Nikel
  10. Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies by Greg Egan
Ratings for Feigenbaum Number:
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:
4/5 (1 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
4/5 (1 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreScience Fiction,
MotifAcademia, Proving Theorems, Math Education,
TopicMathematical Physics, Chaos/Fractals,
MediumShort Stories, Available Free Online,

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Exciting News: The total number of works of mathematical fiction listed in this database recently reached a milestone. The 1,500th entry is The Man of Forty Crowns by Voltaire. Thanks to Vijay Fafat for writing the summary of that work (and so many others). I am also grateful to everyone who has contributed to this website. Heck, I'm grateful to everyone who visited the site. Thank you!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)