The Momentum of Pynchon’s Secret Formula: Gravity’s Rainbow’s Second Equation Between Archival Sources and Fiction

Abstract

Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) sports three equations in mathematical notation, and the second of these has puzzled readers for 45 years: is Pynchon’s Second Equation real or made up? And what role does it have for interpretations of Gravity’s Rainbow? In this paper, we draw on scientific documents and material from the archive of the German Museum, Munich (Deutsches Museum München) to establish the plausibility of the equation and determine its source. Based on our findings, we examine further instances of Pynchon’s working with previously unidentified scientific and technical sources, and reconsider the role of the Second Equation in Gravity’s Rainbow in terms of its relations to power and control, the life path of the ‘main’ character Tyrone Slothrop, and the novel’s perspective on the ethical potentials of mathematics and physics.