Mathematical Plot Devices
Story tropes recast as math objects: love triangle, betrayal square, envy pentagon, bipartite gang feuds, an irreducible polynomial with a heart of gold, and body swaps as transpositions and derangements.
Content note: Cartoon violence (backstabbing, gang violence).
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/2024-11-04-mathematical-plot-devices/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
[Post subtitle] "It goes way beyond love triangles."
[1] Love Triangle: two people fall in love with the same third person. (Post: "love angle" is more accurate; "love triangle" should mean the suitors also love each other.)
[2] Betrayal Square: four people backstab one another at right angles. (Post: likely inspired by The Lion in Winter.)
[3] Envy Pentagon: five professional rivals seethe with mutual jealousy. (Post: nothing requires in-degree to equal out-degree.)
[4] Massage Hexagon: six people stand in a ring, giving each other backrubs.
[5] Bipartite Graph of Gang Violence: every gang member is a node, and every mutual grudge is an undirected arc.
[6] The Irreducible Polynomial with a Heart of Gold: x² − 2. "Look, I know he seems cold, incalculable, even irrational. But the guy gets results. And at his roots, he's still *real*, dammit." (Post: "There's just no rational way to factor that guy.")
[7] Body Swap (transposition): Two people exchange bodies. All others are mapped into their original bodies.
[8] Body Swap (derangement): All people exchange bodies. No fixed points are allowed.