Math as a Muse (Part I)

I have had an affinity for math for as long as I can remember.  Even in elementary school, when working with numbers or shapes, it always seemed like magic to me.  Now, as an adult, I find this magic hiding in unexpected places, like the relationships between notes in music, and in the geometry of architecture.  It was the latter that called out to me last week.

I was standing in a place of worship.  Admittedly, I do not spend a great deal of time in such places.  On this particular occasion, in a church, my mind was wandering, and I began examining all of the geometry around me: the slopes in the roof, the shapes of the stained glass, and the angle in which the sunlight came through them.  When my gaze returned forward, I began to carefully examine all of the equally spaced columns (known as pews) between me and the front of the church, where the Reverend stood.  Almost immediately, a fun math problem presented itself to me, and I spent the next twenty minutes analyzing it in my mind.

As shown in the figure below, I can see less and less of each column the further they are from me, as each column is obstructed by the one that precedes it.  But, what governs how much of a given column I can see?  I called the column directly in front of me n = 0, and then came 1, 2, and so on.  My aim was to find a function that described the height of each column that I could see for each column, h(n).  I decided that it depended on three other parameters: the column spacing (s), as well as the vertical and horizontal distance from my eyes to the zeroth column immediately in front of me (H and L).

Searching for visible height h as function of pew number n (mad paint skills, I know...)

The Love Function

Typically, my semesters are spent teaching Physics courses.  The past two semesters have been a little bit different for me, with some Mathematics courses thrown into the mix.  A few weeks ago, in my Calculus course, one student, we will call “Jimmy”, asked if math could be used for something useful.

I explained that math was the language of science, and science affects us every day.  Also, business requires math to predict where it will go based on where it has been and other factors.  The social sciences require a deep understanding of statistics to make sense of our lives.

Jimmy said that business and science are good, but not all that important to him at this stage of his life.  “Can math help us find love?” he asked.  What an excellent question.