The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman

She sees her blog as “a place to learn about math topics in an accessible, light-hearted manner. She writes a blog called “Gems in STEM” and frequently posts the essays on Cantor’s Paradise, the #1 math site on.

The judges felt that their own words were inadequate to summarize Julia’s achievement in writing “Math Person.” Let us simply say, read her poem and experience it for yourself.Īpoorva Panidapu is a 16-year-old mathematics student, artist, and advocate for youth and gender minorities in STEAM. I want to go back into that auditorium and finish the exam and talk about it all night. I don’t want to be patted on the shoulder and misunderstood. Not seeing what it was all for, wishing – but never working up the guts to push – for more. I’m someone who sat through the slow-drip of middle school math, bored and daydreaming,

Mom offers to stop by Panera as a treat for all the painful math that I’ve just endured. “Math Person” conveys – in ways both beautiful and haunting – the isolation Julia felt as one of the only girls in the American Math Competition 10th grade and, more profoundly, the intellectual isolation she still feels every day as someone who loves math deeply yet lacks a friend with whom to share it. Julia Schanan’s entry for the Strogatz Prize was a free-verse poem titled “Math Person.” The judges were moved by the poem’s artistry and emotional power, its depth and raw honesty, its brilliant use of language, and its eye for the unexpected but telling detail.

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman