konigsberg bridge games: by devi laskar

There are people in my family who say there are three types of people in the world: the ones who know the math and do it, the ones who think they know but really don’t know the math and therefore don’t do it, and the ones who know the math but CHOOSE not to do it unless it is absolutely necessary. It’s okay to be in the first group and the third group, but it’s not okay to be in the second group.

In my family it’s actually not great to be in the third group, either. J But there I am, the writer in the family, decidedly in the third group. Knowing the math but choosing a life of words, lines, sentences, paragraphs even. But I will confess right here and now that I actually have a math story to tell today. I am the protagonist in my own little fable about using math for personal good. Usually, I try to avoid using math that’s harder than what your typical second grader is perfecting these days – but it was somewhat of an emergency, so I broke into the piggy bank, metaphorically speaking.

So, I’ve moved across the country and I found myself in the local grocery parking lot earlier this week, with three cars in my possession. And just little ‘ole me in the pouring rain, wondering how I was going to get my cars to my new home a small distance away and return the loaner – all before dinnertime. And all without having to do the otherwise tedious and repetitive task of driving one car at a time to its particular destination and then having to walk back in the hard rain to fetch another one.

I thought and thought and thought and then I thought some more. And I remembered my Euler and the Konigsberg Bridge Problem, the solution that became the foundation of modern graph theory, and adapted it for my own use. I drove the loaner back to my new house and called my cohort from graduate school.

He came over after work, and off we went in the loaner, three sets of car keys between us – I dropped him off at my car #1, and he followed me to drop off the loaner. From there, I drove my friend in my car to car #2, where he took the wheel, so to speak, and we drove the cars where they belonged: in my driveway. What is important to note is that I haven’t caught a chill, yet, because I managed to stay dry throughout that experiment. 🙂

The move has been a trying experience, in the sense that it has tried all of my patience, endurance, and composure – it was refreshing to try a little math, instead. And maybe that’s the thing that has been lacking, of late, in my writing: fun, and a little experimentation. Maybe I have been saving things for a future project, or hoarding what I have and trying to rework old material. I think it’s time to “branch out” and try something new, have a little fun while I write.

I’d write more about writing, but I have tens of boxes to unpack and I haven’t yet come up with a math theorem and a plan to get anyone to help with that.

Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, an M.A. in South Asian Studies from the University of Illinois, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan, is working on a couple of novels and has 16 days to go before she finishes the first year of her art-a-day challenge.