Math Haiku
Ten hand-lettered haiku, each defining a math term (number, proof, counterexample, infinity, paradox, model, inverses, application, corollary, Cartesian plane) with a small illustration.
Use this cartoon
Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.
Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015-09-02-math-haiku/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
[1] Number: "naked quantity / defined not by its units / but by lack thereof" [a 5 with arms]
[2] Proof: "footprints of logic / showing how, where one truth leads, / another follows" [footprints]
[3] Counterexample: "brave little David / who topples the Goliath / with a single stone" [tiny "counterexample" slings a stone at a giant "conjecture"]
[4] Infinity: "a thing with no end / not even the distant one / you're picturing now" [a line running off the card]
[5] Paradox: "a wound that logic / left to its own devices / inflicts on itself" [a snake eating its tail]
[6] Model: "simple little toy / cupped in the hands of children / like a tiny world" [two figures and a small globe]
[7] Inverses: "foes that cancel out / leaving empty battlefields / wherever they meet" [gravestones for 5 and −5]
[8] Application: "the strange surrender / when a practicality / yields to a theory" [a figure cheers "It works!" beside a graph]
[9] Corollary: "the nimble speedboat / riding along in the wake / of a massive ship"
[10] Cartesian Plane: "an abstract canvas / where geometry sketches / algebra's portrait" [axes with a dashed circle]