Hello everyone,
I may have made the decision to do fewer tag posts from now on, but when I was nominated by the wonderful Sophie @ Me and Ink for this one, I simply could not resist. Do check out her blog by the way, as her posts are always such fun to read.
So this is a super fun and ingenious tag – created by Naemi @ A Book Owl’s Corner – which combines books with maths. I love all the prompts, so let us get straight to my answers!
The constant zero function x ↦ 0 maps every number to zero. And although finding its intersections with other functions is one of mathematicians’ greatest obsessions, one can’t deny that the zero function itself just isn’t all that exciting…
For this prompt, pick a book so monotonously boring you almost fell asleep reading it!
I read this one recently, so it is rather fresh in the memory. It promised so much – a Gothic book about witchcraft that contains a hint of sapphic romance, sounds perfect! But the execution was poor, with the writing style and aimless plot making me pretty bored by the end.
Also known as the identity map, the function x ↦ x is central to mathematics. Not only is it the most basic linear function in existence, but it also gives certain collections of functions a group structure by functioning as the group’s neutral element: When you compose a function with the identity map, you obtain the same function as before.
For this prompt, choose a book with a generic plot that you can’t help but love!
I like to see originality in books, and all other forms of media for that matter, so I try to avoid things which appear too generic. The thing I like about You’ll Be The Death Of Me is that, although certain things are predictable and it does contain several common features/themes of the young adult thriller genre, it is still a really fun ride with a few red herrings along the way.
The graphs of degree-two polynomial functions such as x ↦ x2 are called parabolas. When the corresponding polynomial’s leading coefficient is positive, as is the case here, the parabola is symmetrical to a vertical line going through its lowest point, the vertex.
For this prompt, choose a book or series with an epic beginning and ending, but a lacklustre middle!
This book was so well written and I enjoyed it a lot, but the pacing around the middle certainly slowed down and became less gripping. For something almost 600 pages long, this was much more noticeable than it might have been for a shorter book. Then again, the beginning and the ending were both fabulous!
The inverse of x ↦ x2 on the non-negative reals, the function x ↦ √x assigns the square root of a given number to that number – provided the number in question is greater than or equal to zero.
For this prompt, explore your literary roots and pick a book that got you into reading!
The books I read as a child were mainly popular children’s classics. In primary school we read Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, which stands out. After that I bought and read most of Roald Dahl’s books.
Like parabolas, hyperbolas are conic sections – graphs obtained by intersecting the surface of a cone with a plane. The standard hyperbola is given by the map x ↦ 1/x, the most basic rational function out there.
For this prompt, choose a book with a scenario so unrealistic you can’t help thinking it’s full of hyperbole and over the top!
Another one of my recent reads! This young adult thriller was just about as intense as it gets, in which a video-game obsessed main character has a mysterious app downloaded on her phone and makes her do things that threaten her friends’ lives. It was exciting to read at times, but a lot of it forces you to suspend your disbelief to extremes.
Inarguably one of the most famous functions out there, the sine function x ↦ sin(x), is particularly well known for its characteristically wavy graph.
For this prompt, pick a book that was an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs!
This book is so wonderful for so many reasons, and there were times where it simply destroyed me with its emotion and tension. I love the main character Xingyin, and emotional rollercoaster I went through with her throughout its incredible story is unlike most other reading experiences I have had.
Although often treated as an afterthought to sine, the cosine function x ↦ cos(x) is meritable in its own right. For example, π, one of the most beautiful constants in the universe, is defined in higher mathematics as twice the first positive zero of the cosine function. Using this power series, one can show that π is precisely the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. If that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is!
For this prompt, pick a book featuring pie!
I thought this prompt would be really hard, but then I remembered that the title character in this book, Nat Davy, was presented to Queen Henrietta Maria in a pie. It is very sad really, how he was treated in such a dehumanising way.
The quotient of sine and cosine, the tangent function x ↦ tan(x) completes our main trigonometric trio.
For this prompt, pick a book that loves to go on tangents so much that it needs footnotes to do them justice!
This features a book within a book, where January learns about the mysterious doors. And that book memorably contains footnotes, as well as other intriguing messages!
As a function that is its own derivative, the natural exponential function x ↦ ex is a symbol of absolute mathematical perfection.
For this prompt, pick your favourite book of all time!
Is it any wonder why I talk about this book so often?! Choosing a favourite book of all time is always a monumental task and it is still hard to choose only one, but with this one more than any other, I was completely blown away by every aspect of its brilliance.
The inverse of the natural exponential function, the natural logarithm function x ↦ ln(x), sometimes also written as x ↦ log(x), is extremely relevant to anyone studying in a scientific field. We’d have run out of paper long ago without the introduction of logarithmic scales!
For this prompt, choose a book that features logs or journal entries!
The storytelling in this series is split into lots of small chapters, and occasional diary entries from Joyce, one of the main characters. These are an absolute highlight as Joyce is adorable for her conversational manner and habit for going off on hilarious tangents.
An example of a fractal curve, the Weierstrass function x ↦ Wα(x) is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. By discovering it, German mathematician Karl Weierstraß was able to disprove the previously popular claim that such functions did not exist, earning the function the moniker “monster”.
For this prompt, choose a book you find truly intimidating!
Why does Samantha Shannon write such long books? Just seeing their sheer size is enough to intimidate me, but also the number of POVs and the epic fantasy concepts make me think twice about picking this up, or indeed the newly released prequel.
To say that the Riemann zeta function is interesting is almost an understatement. The Riemann Hypothesis, which claims that ζ has zeros only at the negative even integers and complex numbers with real part 1/2, is one of the biggest open conjectures in pure mathematics. Proving it would earn you both eternal glory and a million dollars’ worth of prize money and be just about the most satisfying thing ever!
For this final prompt, pick an intriguing book you hope to tackle in the future and are eyeing as your next possible read!
Perhaps not my next read, but definitely one that I want to start soon! I have seen this one all over bookish social media this year and bought a copy during a recent trip to London. It has all the makings of a book that I will enjoy, so I am excited to get to it.
Let’s Chat
And that is everything! Thank you again to Naemi for writing such thoughtful questions and putting so much work into this tag.
If you would like to have a go at this, please consider yourself tagged!
Do you like maths? Do you agree with any of my answers? Let me know in the comments!
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