Collected Responses to the Math Horizons' Venery Game


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A residue of (complex) analysts.

Karl David
Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Wells College
Aurora, NY 13026
(315)364-3212
kdavid@wells.edu

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How about, to describe an exaltation of mathematicians:

a sum of mean squares
a pit of adders
a figment of Newton
a bit on the Heaviside
a dip in the Boole
a pinch of a Godel?

Sorry, these are all negative!
Sandy Keith,
St. Cloud State, MN up north from you guys.

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Deanna & Stephen:

I enjoyed the collective nouns piece (Math Horizons, Sep. 95) BUT wonder why James Lipton has overloaded the already busy word, _venery_ and perhaps brought a blush to your younger readers?

The OED gives the usual meanings: "hunting for birds (game)" and "pursuit of or indulgence in sexual pleasures." (From _different_ Latin roots, by the way!)

My 1981 _Devil's DP Dictionary_ (McGraw-Hill, 1981)** has the following entries (many of which are more relevant to computer marketing/sociology than to computer science):

collective noun _n._ "A singularly euphonious appellation." --W.C. Fields. A revealing name applied to a class or aggregate, as: "a pride of lexicographers," "a doze of profreaders." _See_ the table on page 30. _See also_ ^DATA^.

TABLE OF COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Unit member ------- Collective noun(s)
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Field engineer ------- An _absence_ of engineers
User ------- A _bleat_ of users, or A _jury_ of users
Manufacturer ------- a _dock_ of manufacturers
DPM ------- A _panic_ of DPMs
Systems analyst ------- An _expectation_ of systems analysts
Programmer ------- A _detail_ of programmers
Operator ------- An _indifference_ of operators
Salesperson ------- A _trough_ of salespersons
Consultant ------- A _retreat_ of consultants
Deadline ------- A _sequence_ of deadlines
Connector ------- A _conspiracy_ of connectors
Dump ------- A _gloom_ of dumps
String ------- A _vest_ of strings
Crash ------- A _jangle_ of crashes
Datum ------- A _loss_ of data
High-level language ------- A _logomachy_ of high-level languages
or A _babol_ of high-level languages
Competitor ------- A _rafter_ of competitors
Senior COBOL programmer ------- A _load_ of old Cobollers

Following entry tackled the old problem: is _data_ singular or plural in English?

data _n._ [Latin _da[short]re_ "to offer or give," whence _da[short]tum_" that which is offered or given."] The singular collective noun for a set of datums.

The entry at "lemma three" may tickle your fancy (I wrote it for the "Manifold" magazine back in the 60s when I was post-graduating at Warwick Univ. UK -- before Ian Stewart was rich and famous. I updated the entry for the MIT Press edition**)

lemma three _n._ More strictly, a conjecture; even more strictly, a possible conjecture, insofar as Pierre de Fermat's dying marginalia in 1665 read: "Ah, pauv'cons, you zink zat my penultimate con-jecteure was incroyable..._mais_, et c'est un grand _mais_...it is but un cas spe[acute]cial of my jolie troisie[grave]me lemme[grave]re, qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs...Mon dieu, I have a precise upper bound for the Selmer group in the semistable case of the symmetric square representation associated to a modular form...Gaston, de l'encre et encore une autre marge!...arrgh!" The search continues.

CHORUS Lemma three, very pretty, and the converse pretty too; But only God and Fermat know which of them is true.

VERSE 1 When I studied number theory, I was happy in me prime, And all them wild conjectures, I knocked them two at a time, but...

CHORUS

VERSE 2 Last week, at supervision, Ken Ribet said to me: "Did you discover the deliberate mistake in lemma numberthree?"

CHORUS

VERSE 3 Lemma three it has puzzled mathematicians by the score, But Max Newman has engulfed it, and it won't be seen no more.

CHORUS

VERSE 4 Well, the axiom of choice, it is very clear to me: If you wanna choose a lemma, boys, then don't choose lemma three, for...

VERSE 5 And it's black and white together, we shall not be moved, But the four-color theorm, it hasn't yet been proved,[fnote X] (last time now...)

CHORUS Lemma three, very pretty, and the converse pretty too; But only God and Andrew know which of them is true.

(Words by SK-B, based, with deep respect, on "The Lemon Tree," Will Holt, Dolfi Music Inc., Chappell Music Company, New York.)

fnote X: If you have read, understood, and ^LINT^ed Appel & Haken's program, you can skip this pre-1976 verse.

PAX etc Stan Kelly-Bootle

** Recently revised as _The Computer Contradictionary_ (MIT Press), 1995

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A Clique of Graph Theorists
A Goedel of Logicians

Roger Kirchner
Carleton College

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A bundle of algebraic topologists?
A proof of logicians (this is a standard one, I did not invent it)
A mess of model-theorists (don't attribute this to me) (or mathematicians??)

Jon Barwise,
Indiana University
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It seems to me that the best collective nouns should be alliterative. How about

A tangle of topologists.

It would probably be best if I did this anonymously. Alas, the email gives me away.

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Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 06:34:29 -0500
To: venery@mathcs.carleton.edu
From: Zalman Usiskin
Subject: A Bunch of Nonsense

Enough said on the subject!

Zalman Usiskin
Professor of Education
Director, University of Chicago School Mathematics Project

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A FLEECE OF SOFTWARE
or, to be more kind
A CLOUD OF SOFTWARE

A PATTERN OF MATHEMATICIANS (I like your ABSTRACTION better)

A GRIM OF ADMINISTRATORS

A VICEPRESIDENCY OF ALGORITHMS

A RESTIVE OF RESEARCHERS

Kathryn Jones,
Southwest State University,
Marshall, MN

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Nathan Mitchell: a union of mathematicians,
an accumulation of accountants

Nick Larsen: a nullity of nerds

Alisa Walz-Flannigan: a problem set of pocket-protected people

Britt Piehler: a full house of poker players

Ed Blair: A ton of weightlifters
A basket of traders

Simeon Nichter: A school of math structures students

Lauren Jantz: a conjunction of mathematicians
a union of mathematicians

David Jones: sum nerds
a function of mathematicians

Kathy Treash: a tautology of mathematicians



ALL Carleton College

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a survey of statisticians

a monolith of mathematics

Shasta Willson,
University of Oregon

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Here are a few of my creations:
a Group of Abstract Algebraists,
an Uncertainity of Physicists,
A Euclidian of Geometrists.
The spelling my be off. I'm in a hurry, but you get the point.
Z.


Zine Smith
smithz@sci.obu.edu
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I enjoyed your article "A Gaggle of Geeks" in Math Horizons (Nov. '95)

I have thought of a few possible additions to your list:
a PROPOSITION of conjectures
a PROOF of theorems
a FOLLOWING of corollaries
and for teachers...
a MALADY of tests to be graded


Keith Durham
KET
600 Cooper Drive
Lexington, KY 40502-2296
(606) 258-7128
kdurham@ket.org

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An Obscurity of Mathematicians
An Absurdity of Mathematicians
A Sequence of (Freshman) Calculus Students

Matthew Shaffer,
CSU Hayward

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A fun game -- the list of possibilities is infinite. Here's one, rather arbitrary, and maybe not so great: A hayrack of problems. I really don't even see the connection between hayrack and problems, but I like the idea of hay in a rack -- all mixed up to be thrown about and maybe one will find the `needle' - the gem among the chaff.

--Loren Larson

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We just got our Math Messes over here at Carleton this morning. Sam Patterson suggests this, perhaps too obvious, but attractive in its simplicity:

A group of algebraists

I expect more will be forthcoming (ah! an expectation of probabilists!)

Jeff Ondich

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Prof. K
I haven't thought too much about this, but here's one:

A model of mathematicians

Jason Miller

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Deanna and Steve,

Is it to late to play the venery game?

An associativity of algebraists
A cross section of sheaf theorists
An assortment of combinatorialists
A Baire majority of analysts
A bundle of nerds

Paul Zorn

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Prof. Haunsperger--
I promised I'd think of some venereal terms for you, so here's what I have come up with:

A volume of mathematic authors

A derivation of calculus students

An odd distribution of statisticians

A matrix of mathematicians

A circle of math lovers

A one-to-one relationship of mathematicians (i.e. a math marriage) (That one's especially for you.)

Here's one that's not really a term of venery, but you might enjoy it:

One function of a nest of calculets (i.e. young calculus students) is to test their limits, and possibly the limits of their profs.

Hope you enjoyed this little math-filled message. Possibly more to come (???).

--Beth Wolff

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The "terms of venery" contest seems like a great idea. So far, the ones below have come to mind. I would guess that you really want only one entry per person, and I'll go with the first one:
A circle of geometers.
Other possibilities:
A growth of exponentials;
a tableau of (linear) programmers;
a proximity of (numerical?) analysts;
a tangle of knots;
a creed of axioms;
a totality of integrals;
a nest of rings;
an etiquette of properties.

May you continue to get ... a multitude of entries.

Mark Krusemeyer


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Subject: flock of seagulls
Cc: tubesing@stolaf.edu

Ok, so here's my entry, finally. I have a few generic ones, and a complex system for naming geometry specialists or students or whatever. How about 'a series of integral calculists'. or 'a spiral of Fibbonacci freaks.' Or, for geometry folks, what shall we call them - geometricians? OK, let's call them a 'polygon of geometricians' this is a name for an ambiguous number of them like a bunch or a few. But if we know exactly how many of them there are, we can get specific. If there are 5 then they are a pentagon of geometricians. If there are six, then they are a hexagon, and so forth. Now, this is assuming that they are exclusively educated in geometry. If they are versed in other areas, we can call them a 'polyhedron of well-rounded geometricians', and get more specific from there.

To make it all clear, say we have ten geometricians who are oblivious to the rest of the world outside of geometry, we call them a 'decagon of geometricians'

If the ten are more well rounded, like say they know a little calculus, or stats or maybe even HISTORY, or ART or something, then we would call them a 'decahedron of geometricians'. Twelve would be a dodecahedron, etc..

So what would these geometricians call a dozen, then? Well if they were ordering cookies or flat washers then they would ask for a dodecagon. If they wanted doughnuts, ole rolls, golf balls, or ball bearings they would want a dodecahedron. OK, well maybe not, but the naming of their groups still applies.

How about a few more generic ones. a 'line of mathmeticians", each one being a point. Or how about, for a group of airhead mathmeticians - an 'empty set of mathmeticians'.

-andy tubesing-


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How's this for the venery competition:
a frustration of conjectures (a la Fermat).

Philip Guenther

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since it's the last day, I'll empty my "cache", for better or worse

a limit of math humor
an infinum of calc students

Jason Miller

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