46 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "The Fluxion of Fortune"
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description: "for Isaac, who mastered the Mint but not the market"
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author: "Abaci.one Team"
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publishedAt: "2025-12-07"
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updatedAt: "2025-12-07"
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tags: ["poetry", "history", "mathematics", "newton", "calculus"]
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featured: false
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---
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**Pronunciation Guide:** ẋ is "ex dot" · <span style="position: relative;">x<span style="position: absolute; top: -0.25em; left: 0; right: 0; text-align: center;">̄</span></span> is "ex bar"
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---
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In Woolsthorpe nights of candle-glow,
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He watched the apple fall just so—
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A whisper of ẋ murmured low,
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A hint of what he'd one day know.
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He carved the world in curves of light,
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Bent stars with math he birthed outright;
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But markets?—aye, a different fight,
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Whose tides he failed to fluxion right.
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For coin obeys no cosmic plot,
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It drifts where fevered humors rot;
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He'd trace a comet's path on the spot—
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Yet never guessed his stocks were naught.
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He could have tamed each rising bar,
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Mapped fortunes by <span style="position: relative;">x<span style="position: absolute; top: -0.25em; left: 0; right: 0; text-align: center;">̄</span></span> afar,
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And steered his purse like some bright star—
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Not wrecked upon a South Sea scar.
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But genius trips where mortals trot,
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And even Newton, spared no blot,
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Might've saved his gold—had he used ẋ
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To see the crash begot.
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And thus his wealth slipped through the sieve,
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With no derivative to give;
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He mastered laws by which stars live,
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But found the Market... negative.
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