a five seven five / origins in japanese / science of haiku
 

After a mild bet with a friend the other day, I decided to write some haiku about various science-y subjects. So far they've all been materials science oriented, but I think I'm going to start branching out into other fields I'm familiar with.

These are the ones I've written so far (most aren't very good ;_; ).


Ice begins to form
Foundries worry of shrinkage
nucleation growth


Transport, atoms drift
High to low it always goes
For a random walk


intrinsic defects
never achieve perfection
entropy will win


Virtual charges
Schottky, Frenkel, they all are
Vacancies abound


Ok, also a note. This is a thread for the things I've written. I don't think it's common here to go and post your art into someone else's thread, so please don't do that here.

I think they are actually rather clever, but then again I've always thought that one had to be clever in order to write a decent haiku.

I also have to mention how well your avatar goes with doing this. ^^

First off, props for using a Washu avatar. Best character in the entire f-ing series.

Second, those are quite good. I especially like the third one as it seems to be the most powerful. Also, I have never heard the orbitting of a electron around a nucleus stated as simply as your second haiku. The fourth one seems rather esoteric, but would probably also be good if I understood it.

This shows that nerds can be creative too!

Thanks for the compliment mesmeric.

Haha, thanks. I figured it was about time to bring her back to the limelight. :p

I kind of want to give a description for each haiku, but I kind of worry that it'll be like trying to explain a joke and it'll just ruin it. Like, the third one isn't actually about electrons orbiting an atom. I'll try to do a quick explanation in the next paragraph.

So, most solids out there are made up of crystal structures. This means that the atoms are arranged in a certain pattern that repeats over and over and over, for any decent sized material over 10^23 times. Inside this structure, there's an atom a certain positions all over the crystal. However, due to entropy (in this case it can be kinda described like a sort of force that pushes towards randomness) there will be a few atoms missing from locations in the lattice. For every 10^23 atoms, there's usually around 10^14 to 10^16 empty spots called vacancies. That they're naturally occurring and want to be there is why they're called "intrinsic" defects (It's a defect only because it takes away from perfect regularity of the crystal, they actually give very important properties to the materials.).

So, does explaining it kill the meaning, or should I outline my thought process a bit for the others as well? =p

These are great! I can't decide which I like more, the second or third one.
Oh, please write more!

So, sitting here bored and came up with this one as a result of the homework I was doing around this time last night.

Ride the Total Wave.
Sawtooth, Square, Sine; no matter...
Fourier Transform.

If Thevenin would
not have made his equating,
my circuits wouldn't be.

Op-amps and diodes
are where the fun is at. I
just don't get the math.

Curves and gradients,
abstract thoughts on paper. Oh,
a lab would be nice.

How is that? :biggrin:

Sliding down the Slope
Rooting around for a Point
with Newton's Method

Ok, also a note. This is a thread for the things I've written. I don't think it's common here to go and post your art into someone else's thread, so please don't do that here.

For the first two in the beginning of your first post, were you thinking about science when you wrote them?

Clever. I rather like this one, don't know why.

Does anyone know if there are more "rules" to haikus, aside from the 5/7/5 form everyone knows? I suppose you're using haiku as a free source of inspiration, not trying to make yours absolutely "true" to their Japanese models, but I figured I'd just ask.

Miyomi, all of them are based on some sort of scientific principle or mathematical concept.

Face, a common one is throwing in a seasonal reference somewhere (since most are traditionally about nature it gives a bit more mental imagery, I guess). If you google "haiku rules" up you can find plenty of pages about various styles of haiku, though none of them are set in stone (the modern 575 style came about in the late 1800s, I believe).

Also, sorry for no new ones recently. Just got home for spring break and not really having any inspiration going on. :(

Thanks for the compliments, though, it's nice to see people appreciate them. :D

They have to be nature themed, but the science sorta works.

Just a little tip. If you want to write good ones, make them say something other than "random science fact." The entropy one was the best.

That's just because you don't get some of the other ones. There's a couple of double meanings and plays on words that you'll only get if you're familiar with the jargon in materials science.

Oh, no I get it. It's just not really profound. Careful adopting the attitude of "well, if they don't like, they just don't get it."

I have to question your familiarity with frenkel and schottky defects.

And I don't really have that attitude, since I know some of my other ones have sucked. I put these things through QC with friends that do get them and see how they like 'em before I go back and revise/ditch various ones.

I also feel that way a bit since most people I've shown them to tend to like the one with entropy while the people I know from materials like the last one from the first post (or the second).

Much like when you watch a kid's movie fifteen years after you saw it, you'll notice there's usually a more mature joke put in now and then that completely passed over your head when you were younger, if you become familiar with the background of the subject material you'll be more likely to get the jokes (not saying all of them are necessarily good).

Hell, just for this line,
Foundries worry of shrinkage
What meaning did you take from it?


The mindset I have when writing these is a sort of conclusion on a chapter of the material in a textbook. It's a bit like a mnemonic device to draw some concepts together (though not nearly as memorable).

Okay, let me rephrase. The difference between good poetry and great poetry is that everyone can relate to great poetry. If you speak too obtusely, you confine yourself to the realm of not great. I'm not sure if that matters to you, but if you take a random Japanese Haiku, anyone who has stepped out of their house once can relate to it. Art is about sharing the human experience.

Of course, you could just be doing it for a larf, in which case it doesn't really matter.

So I was bored in physics the other day and wound up digging up my old book from my backpack to jot this guy down (as well as another one or two that suck).

Am I here, or there?
Once I was everywhere...but!
you just had to look.

You're no longer my friend. :(