Szymborska and Riemann

It must be over two years ago since I last studied the Riemann Hypothesis: all nontrivial zeros of the Zeta Function have real part ½. If you know a little about functions, infinite series, and complex analysis, the statement of the conjecture is easy to understand. But its proof or disproof has withstood all assaults since Bernhard Riemann first conjectured it in his classic 1859 paper “On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude.”

I don’t know what triggers my interest in mathematics. I think it might be the onset of melancholy when I want most to avoid melancholy. Was it melancholy last week that made me open a book of forbidding mathematics about the problem? No matter, I’m hooked again.

This time, I have resolved to ask my own questions about the zeta function rather than reading books about it. The only tools I have are some half remembered analytic number theory and my trusty old TI-85 scientific calculator.

I’m no fool when it comes to these researches. I know I won’t get far, but I will walk my own miles in my own boots. It saves time. I can work while making a BLT sandwich, or talking to an acquaintance who has no idea what is rolling round my brain. Don’t give me a pop quiz; I won’t pass.

Was it only last week I realized I had not been reading nearly enough poetry? That’s changing. The poetry of Wislawa Szymborska sits beside my calculator.

Poetry—trying to find the nontrivial zeros for the equation of life.