An old "pulp" SF story about an accident which strands some space travelers on a deserted but habitable planet. One of them is a female mathematician:
| (quoted from Eve Times Four)
Teresina was of the tall and willowy persuasion, with long blonde hair and large blue eyes, snub nose and slightly parted lips. Her black kirtle and white mantle had childlike connotations on Earth, protective coloration fro a shy girl who didn't know what to do when a ma spoke to her in any language but mathematics.
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Teresina has a habit of using the names of famous historical mathematicians as if they were expletives (e.g. "Enough is enough, for Gauss' sake" and "Cayley and Sylvester! If you had any will power whatsoever you would help me with the boat!"). At one point the narration says "Teresina closed her eyes and tried to pass the time by mentally integrating ex logn x dx" (though it is typeset incorrectly in the version I saw).
Aside from that, the only mathematical content is that Teresina was smart enough to be able to figure out that that the "accident" was actually planned by one of the male castaways who had hoped to convince the four women on-board that they had a legal obligation to have sex with him in order to perpetuate the species, and also where they were.
Originally published in the April 1960 issue of Fantastic Science Fiction Stories. |
