Students Create New Mathematics Magazine

"What's big and grey and undefined?"

"An elephant divided by zero."

This is just one of the math jokes that can be found in Tangents, Harvard's new and only student-run math magazine.

According to Editorial Board member Christopher E. Degni '97, Tangents, which was founded last spring, is designed to bring mathematics to the general reader.

"Tangents shows people the beauty of math without the usual rigor, and it is a journal for everyone to pick up," he said in an interview yesterday.

Editor-in-Chief Andrew W. Pimlott '97 said he hopes to make the bulletin accessible to those who are not mathematically-oriented.

"A lot of areas of math that are interesting and beautiful are usually not appreciated or even presented to a general audience," he said.

But Pimlott admits that the primary readers of the bulletin will be students who have a natural affinity for math and science. And he said he wants to make sure the magazine keeps a mathematical flavor and is not watered down.

Tangents, run by a staff of about 15 to 20 undergraduates, includes original student research articles, jokes and math problems.

"I like the fact that students initiated it," said Raoul Bott, Graustein professor of mathematics and one of the magazine's faculty advisors. "They did it on their own and it is their baby."

Last month, Tangents released its second issue and made its first issue available on the World Wide Web. The magazine is one of nine Harvard student publications now on the Web, according to Eugene E. Kim '96, former president of the Harvard Computer Society.

Christopher W. Whelan '97, business manager for the magazine, said 550 copies of the second issue were printed and distributed for free to students and departments. Individuals outside of the Harvard community are allowed to subscribe for $10 a year.

Future issues, to be produced twice yearly, will be made available at the Union and the Science Center.

The bulletin has generated varying student reactions so far.

"The wide range of topics speaks of the diversity and universality of math," said Susan Young '98.

"The topics are very interesting for both math concentrators and people not really into it," said math concentrator Yannis Dosios '97. He said that the puzzles, the jokes and the history behind mathematical events were especially entertaining.

But others felt the contents of the magazine were too esoteric for the general reader.

"For somebody not studying math, it is probably not amusing at all because some of the material is either too trivial or too intricate for the non-mathematician," said Timothy S. Eller '98.

According to Vice President Sung Han Kim '97, "there was more reaction than expected." He said readers asked many questions and offered corrections for the second issue.

A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer check into a hotel. The proprietor, wishing to test out a theory, has each of their beds set on fire. One by one, the three arrive at their rooms and open the doors.

The engineer sees the bed in flames, runs into the hallway, finds a janitor's closet containing a sink and a bucket, turns the water on high, fills the bucket, and drenches the fire, in the process making a wet sooty of everything.

The physicist enters his room and sees the inferno. He pauses to make some rough measurements, runs into the hallway making order of magnitude calculations, finds the bucket, fills it with just enough water, and precisely pours it where it has the greatest effect, wasting little water and minimizing damage.

The mathematician takes note of the blaze, runs into the hallway, finds the cleaning closet, checks that the faucet is operating and the bucket is intact, runs back to the room to re-examine the fire, then says proudly, "Aha! A solution exists!"