Ahab's Arithmetic: The Mathematics of Moby-Dick

Many critics have held an enduring conviction that Herman Melville's scientific knowledge was scarce. 1 Since Melville was forced to interrupt his studies at an early age, they have applied to the author what Ishmael says of himself in Moby-Dick, that "a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard" (112). Accordingly, they have been led to believe that Melville's competence in mathematics and science was superficial or at best amateurish. However, recent research by Meredith Farmer has uncovered that this was not the case (Farmer 2016). Even though he did not attend college, Melville was lucky enough to get an education in this field far above the average of his time. In his early teens, as he attended the Albany Academy, he happened to be one of the pupils of Joseph Henry, a prominent scientist who would later become the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, and who at the time was teaching "Mathematics and Natural Philosophy" at the institution. Henry, a brilliant scientist and an inspiring pedagogue, adopted a revolutionary approach focused on involving the students in hands-on experiments in order to facilitate instruction by means of direct experience. As shown by Farmer, Melville proved particularly receptive to Henry's teachings, which had a profound and longstanding impact on the young boy. Melville's fascination for mathematics and the sciences remained a major component of his imagination when, several years later, he turned to writing. Indeed, as Zachary Turpin has noted, Melville's "enthusiasm for mathematics was life-long and appears in his stories and poems, his letters, and each of his novels" (18). 2This reevaluation of a pivotal aspect of Melville's biography calls for a reassessment of the role of science and mathematics in Melville's imagination. In this essay I intend to contribute to this endeavor by analyzing one specific and hitherto disregarded mathematical reference in chapter XCVI of Moby-Dick, "The Try-Works." There Ishmael mentions the cycloid, a curve that was at the center of a very lively debate among some Melville's Curves: Mathematics and the Melvillean Imagination. Measuring a Cy...

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Ahab's Arithmetic: The Mathematics of Moby-Dick

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Digital Melville

Digital Melville

Melville’s Curves: Mathematics and the Melvillean Imagination. Measuring a Cycloid in Moby-Dick

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