Poetic Math

An excerpt from "Words of a Mathematical Mind", written as a script for a Math choral speaking contest in September 2005. It did not win any prize.

...

Take this simple question:
2x + 5 = 11 [Two x plus five equals eleven]
- (What?) - 2x + 5 = 11
It’s an equation
Solved by subtraction, and division or multiplication
Or try a function
f(x) = x³ –x² –x
With which you can do differentiation
Or maybe integration
And various other operations
Flowing smooth in calculating motion


Beyond theory, into reality
Far and wide across the air
From currency to astronomy
Doubtless to say, numbers are there
From symmetry to geometry
And all that you thought were merely lines
From intensity, to luminosity
Lighting up the golden mines
Into the riches, wealth, economy
Numbers dictating every little penny

...

Reading this again makes me think: Why go all the trouble to make this?
But then again I also think: What new things to try out in this world we're living in?

A ship at port would never sink;
But that's not what ships are made for.