MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Turnabout (1955)
Gordon R. Dickson
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Contributed by Vijay Fafat

It's a story about a physics professor who is investigating a device that creates planar force-fields. In its first run, an explosion destroys the device and the physicist is trying to obtain an answer to a seeming engineering problem using a second version. The story then goes on to describe how he gets trapped in the 2-D field and how a geometric property of the field, coupled with the fact that the planar field actually takes the form of a mobius surface, enables him to escape. There is a brief description of the way a stick figure on a paper mobius strip reverses orientation on completing a circuit.

Published in If, January 1955. Later republished in the anthology Ends in 1988.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Turnabout
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Left or Right by Martin Gardner
  2. Technical Error by Arthur C. Clarke
  3. No-Sided Professor by Martin Gardner
  4. The Plattner Story by Herbert George Wells
  5. Star, Bright by Mark Clifton
  6. The Moebius Room by Robert Donald Locke
  7. The Gostak and the Doshes by Miles J. Breuer (M.D.)
  8. Tiger by the Tail by A.G. Nourse
  9. A Subway Named Moebius by A.J. Deutsch
  10. The Ifth of Oofth by Walter Trevis
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Categories:
GenreScience Fiction,
MotifMobius Strip/Nonorientability,
TopicGeometry/Topology/Trigonometry, Analysis/Calculus/Differential, Mathematical Physics,
MediumShort Stories,

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Where are the new works of mathematical fiction?: As you can see from this chronological listing, this database includes many works of mathematical fiction for each year from 1990 to 2025. Strangely, only two are listed for 2026, so far. Either less mathematical fiction is being published than in previous years or I'm just having more trouble finding it. If you know of any works of fiction that should be added to this list, especially recently published ones, please let me know. (Keep in mind that I do not include self-published works or children's fiction that just covers elementary mathematical concepts.) Thanks!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)