{"id":1944,"date":"2021-02-28T18:10:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T18:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/?p=1944"},"modified":"2021-06-18T03:36:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T03:36:18","slug":"mathematical-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/2021\/02\/28\/mathematical-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathematical Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">Math could seem to be the most bizarre field for someone like Havens to use as a get-away from the daily hardships. But according to Dr Gary Gordon, a Mathematics Professor, &#8220;Math is in many ways, the perfect antidote to incarceration&#8221;.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chris-Havens-1024x375.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1949\" srcset=\"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chris-Havens-1024x375.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chris-Havens-300x110.jpg 300w, https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chris-Havens-768x281.jpg 768w, https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Chris-Havens.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2020, Christopher Havens, an inmate serving 25 year  sentence for murder in the Washington State, USA, had made headlines  by  publishing an academic research paper in the journal <em>Research in Number Theory.<\/em> Last week, Mr. Havens again appeared in the news by publishing a &#8216;problem&#8217; in the the popular magazine <em>Math Horizons,<\/em> on the occasion of the birthday of the late Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. In the problem,  Havens used 1729, the number also known as <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1729_(number)\" target=\"_blank\">Ramanujan-Hardy number.<\/a><\/em> in what is known as Pell&#8217;s Equation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Math could seem to be the most bizarre field for someone to use as a get-away from the hardships of prison life. But according to Dr Gary Gordon, a Mathematics Professor, &#8220;Math is in many ways, the perfect antidote to incarceration&#8221;, and he feels many people are likely to engage in what is known as &#8216;math-as-escapism&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Havens has done extensive work in the area of continuous fractions. The following quote from him is a testimony to his intellect and the profound beauty and clarity with which his sees mathematics:   \u201c<em>To me, a continued fraction really is the heart of an irrational number. They\u2019re beautiful and pure, and they even have a pulse in the sense that their sets of convergents beat to the rhythm of a leaping arithmetic pattern.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Havens is an amazing example of how a lofty goal can inspire human beings to recover, change course and thrive. He has taken his mission to the next level by launching the &#8216;Prison Math Project&#8217; and is now taking it  National. He says his mission is to &#8220;<em>change lives through reversing recidivism using math&#8221;<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Georg Cantor had once said &#8211; &#8220;<em>The essence of mathematics lies in its freedom<\/em>&#8220;. May be Havens was inspired by this underlying freedom &#8211; which he, most likely coveted dearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/science\/math\/a34887986\/chris-havens-math-inmate\/\" style=\"border-radius:14px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Read a biography of Mr Havens in &#8216;Popular Mechanics&#8217;<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Math could seem to be the most bizarre field for someone like Havens to use as a get-away from the daily hardships. But according to Dr Gary Gordon, a Mathematics Professor, &#8220;Math is in many ways, the perfect antidote to incarceration&#8221;. In 2020, Christopher Havens, an inmate serving 25 year sentence for murder in the&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/2021\/02\/28\/mathematical-redemption\/\"><span>Read More<\/span><i>&#43;<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[31,34,57,61,62,84],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-reports","tag-all-posts","tag-learning-and-me","tag-lifelong-learning","tag-mathematics","tag-number-theory","tag-silverpi-dyse-issue-008"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2412,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions\/2412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverpi.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}