Lewis Carroll Fantasy and Mathematics

Lewis Carroll

Fantasy and Mathematics

Dr. Sid Kolpas
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Delaware County Community College

Why did I decide to spend my life teaching Math?

• I was fascinated with Math, and very good at it.
• Friends and fellow students told me I explained Math better than their teachers.
• I felt great joy in explaining mathematical concepts to others.
• I found teaching highly rewarding, interesting, and challenging.
• I love lifelong learning.
• I had a number of individuals who got me interested in Math, and encouraged me:

Alan Mescon, my 9th grade Algebra Teacher

Dr. Malcolm Soule, a CSUN Professor with whom
I had 4 classes. We’ve been friends for 49 years.

Martin Gardner

I read everything he wrote, and
Corresponded with him.

Dr. Barnabas Hughes OFM: Professor, Mentor, Friend

He sparked an interest in Mathematics, Mathematics History,
and teaching.

Dedicated to Martin Gardner

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Born January 27, 1832
Died January 14, 1898

• Charles Lutwidge
• Carolus Lodovicus
• Lewis Carroll

• Charles Dodgson =
Mathematician

• Lewis Carroll=Author

Carroll/Dodgson Timeline

• 1854 BA Math: 1st in Math, 2nd in Classics
• 1857 MA Math/Oxford Professor
• 1861 Ordained Minister
• 1865 “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
• 1871 “Through the Looking-Glass”
• 1876 “The Hunting of the Snark”
• 1889 “Sylvie and Bruno”



Some Mathematical Titles:As

Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll

• Matrices and Determinants: Linear Algebra MAT 200
• Euclid and His Modern Rivals Geometry
• Symbolic Logic Chapter 3 MAT 120
• The Game of Logic Chapter 3 MAT 120
• Mathematical Theory of Voting Game Theory
• A Tangled Tale Puzzles. Chapter 1 MAT 120
• Pillow Problems Puzzles. Chapter 1 MAT 120
• Curiosa Mathematica Puzzles. Chapter 1 MAT 120
• Plane Algebraical Geometry College Algebra MAT 151
• A New Theory of Parallels Geometry





Some Inventions

• Mechanical Toys
• Mathematical Magic Tricks
• Games: Traveling Chessboard, Doublets,

Syzygies, Circular Billiards, Ciphers,
Puzzles
• Special Photographic Effects



Doublets, or Word Ladders, is a game
invented for “two little girls who found
nothing to do” on Christmas Day

1877. Carroll originally called the the game
“word-links,” but by 1879 he had published

enough of the puzzles in Vanity Fair

magazine to merit a collection by
Macmillan titled “Doublets: a word
puzzle.” The name stuck, and the game was

an immediate and runaway hit.



A Doublet Game

1. Change Dog to Cat: 2. Change Head to Tail

Characteristics/Accomplishments

• One of the top Victorian Photographers
• Minister
• Deeply religious
• Anti-vivisectionist. Helped to form an animal

right’s league.
• Stammered when he spoke: “Do Do Dodgson”
• Literary Critic
• Poet
• Spent much of his time babysitting the young

daughters of Dean Liddell; Alice Liddell was his
favorite





Charles & Alice

Alice comforts the Dodo



Poem from “Through The
Looking-Glass”

Lewis Carroll’s Calendar Magic
He memorized the following trick and
computed the day of the week for any date in

under 20 seconds!

“A Day For Any Date” was
published in the magazine Nature

on March 31, 1887

Methods of Predicting The Day
of The Week Preceeded Carroll

• Augustus Demorgan: 1851



Excel Program For Carroll’s
Calendar Trick

http://scphillips.com/units/dayfor
m.html

Another Carroll Calendar Trick:

• Pick any month from the calendar
• Box ANY 3 by 3 matrix of dates
• I’ll almost instantly tell you the SUM of those nine dates.
• How did I do it?



A LEWIS CARROLL LOGIC PUZZLE (MATH 120)

(a) All babies are illogical.
(b) Nobody is despised who can

manage a crocodile.
(c) Illogical persons are dispised.

B= it is a baby L= it is logical
M=it can manage a crocodile
D= it is despised

Use the 3 premises to arrive at a
conclusion

The End

Suggested Reading

The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition Hardcover
by Lewis Carroll (Author) , Martin Gardner (Editor,
Introduction) , John Tenniel (Illustrator)

Lewis Carroll: A Biography by Morton N. Cohen

Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical
Mathematical Logical Life by Robin Wilson