New Book Alert: Return of the Hypotenuse: Poetry in Math and Science by Sunil Mishra; Poems Explain Mathematical and Scientific Concepts in a Fun and Easy Way

New Book Alert: Return of the Hypotenuse: Poetry in Math and Science by Sunil Mishra; Poems Explain Mathematical and Scientific Concepts In A Fun Easy Way

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: Book on a Subject That You Don't Know Anything About



When we are in school, sometimes we are taught memory devices to remember certain concepts. We all know ROY G BIV to learn the colors of the rainbow or the nursery rhyme, "Thirty days hath September" to remember the months of the year. Of course all children of the '90's and beyond still recall the ditties from Animaniacs: Yakko Warner's "United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru…." And Wakko Warner's "Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus is the capital of Ohio.." The devices take what could be difficult lists of learning by rote into easy to remember concepts.



Author and financial services representative, Sunil Mishra uses these devices to create poems that discuss math and science. For some people, Math and Science can be some of the most difficult subjects. Math can be hard for people who have trouble processing numbers and logical reasoning. Science can be tough for people to remember all of those laws, theories, and methods.
Mishra takes these difficult subjects and gives them form, rhythm, and rhyme. By using poetry, he engages the Reader by making these subjects easy to remember.


You have to give it to a guy who writes a poem about Pi. Humor and learning can be found with lines like "3.14 is called Pi/The Greek letter for P/P the circle for perimeter/The length of the periphery."


The book is written with a late elementary/middle school audience in mind. However, adults who struggled with Math and Science classes in school will enjoy getting reacquainted with the subjects that they may have struggled with in youth. In one poem,Mishra devotes different stanzas to the angles. There is a rhythm to such lines as "a, and b a and b making the right angle/The Hypotenuse being brought up by Mr. C" The rhythm helps make the poem and the Pythagorean Theorem easy to remember. (It also answers the question that you will need this for building and designing.)


The poems include prose explanations describing the subjects. A poem on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, for example, includes a prose section that breaks down the theory into aspects and sub theories. The prose section augments the poetry offering alternate ways to learn about these subjects.


The poems feature a variety of different topics under the general subjects of Math and Science. Some of the more interesting poems discuss various scientists and inventors and how they changed things with their discoveries. One poem, "History of Inventions-A.D. (Anno Domini Intel 8048)" talks about the early inventors and programmers like Charles Babbage and applications like Netscape Navigator and search engines like Alta Vista helped shape computers and the Internet into the juggernaut that we know now.


Mishra even has time to throw in a theological vs. scientific debate. In his poem, "There Must Be Some God," discussed the possibility of intelligent design. The poem offers the possibility that there may be something that provides answers to our unresolved questions.


Sunil Mishra's Return of the Hypotenuse takes complex difficult concepts and makes them simple, understandable, and even fun.