Natural Haiku
After being told haiku should express the beauty of nature, a student writes three math-themed haiku: Snell's law, fractal coastlines, Fibonacci pinecones.
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Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2018-08-23-natural-haiku/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
A: "A haiku isn't just about counting syllables. It's about expressing the beauty of nature." B: "Oh! I get it."
"Light bends by Snell's Law / to minimize time spent: / light has Google Maps."
"The fractal coastline: / its length defies all measure, / except for Hausdorff."
"The pinecone spirals / in Fibonacci sequence. / Nature is a nerd."
A: "Well... I don't think you've quite nailed it yet..."
B: "I know. I wanted to write 'Nature is a total nerd' but that was too many syllables."