A Contribution to the Mathematical Theory of Big Game Hunting (nonfiction)
A Contribution to the Mathematical Theory of Big Game Hunting is a humorous mathematical paper by "H. Pétard" – mathematicians Ralph Boas Jr., Frank Smithies, and colleagues – first published in American Mathematical Monthly in 1938.
The paper offers short spoofs of theorems and proofs from mathematics and physics, in the form of applications to the hunting of lions in the Sahara desert.
One "proof" parodies the Bolzano–Weierstrass theorem:
The Bolzano-Weierstrass Method. Bisect the desert by a line running N-S. The lion is either in the E portion or in the W portion; let us suppose him to be in the W portion. Bisect this portion by a line running E-W. The lion is either in the N portion or in the S portion; let us suppose him to be in the N portion. We continue this process indefinitely, constructing a sufficiently strong fence about the chosen portion at each step. The diameter of the chosen portions approaches zero, so that the lion is ultimately surrounded by a fence of arbitrarily small perimeter.
The paper became a classic of mathematical humor and spawned various follow-ons over the years with theories or methods from other scientific areas adapted to hunting lions.
The paper and later work is published in Lion Hunting and Other Mathematical Pursuits : A Collection of Mathematics, Verse, and Stories by the Late Ralph P. Boas Jr., ISBN 0-88385-323-X.
Various online collections of the lion hunting methods exist as well.
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Nonfiction cross-reference
External links:
- Ralph P. Boas Jr. @ Wikipedia