Log24

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Esprit for Pascal and Galois: Finesse vs. Geometrie

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 9:19 pm

Finesse —

Sunday December 10, 2006  m759 @ 9:00 PM

A Miniature Rosetta Stone:

The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix05B/grid3x3med.bmp” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

“Function defined form, expressed in a pure geometry
that the eye could easily grasp in its entirety.”

– J. G. Ballard on Modernism
(The Guardian , March 20, 2006)

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance –
it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin,
Librarian of Congress, quoted in Beyond Geometry

Geometrie —

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110107-Aleph-Sm.jpg

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Discovery

Filed under: General — m759 @ 10:25 am

See also Boorstin in this journal.

Friday, May 11, 2018

A Pure Geometry

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 9:00 pm

From posts tagged Modernism

Sunday, December 10, 2006

m759 @ 9:00 PM

A Miniature Rosetta Stone:

The 3x3 grid

“Function defined form, expressed in a pure geometry
that the eye could easily grasp in its entirety.”

– J. G. Ballard on Modernism
(The Guardian , March 20, 2006)

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance –
it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin,
Librarian of Congress, quoted in Beyond Geometry

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Illusion

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 2:56 pm

“The greatest obstacle to discovery
is not ignorance —
it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin,
Librarian of Congress,
quoted here in 2006.

Related material —

Remarks on Rubik’s Cube from June 13, 2014 and . . .

See as well a different Gresham, author of Nightmare Alley ,
and Log24 posts on that book and the film of the same name .

Saturday, January 8, 2011

True Grid (continued)

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 12:00 pm

"Rosetta Stone" as a Metaphor
  in Mathematical Narratives

For some backgound, see Mathematics and Narrative from 2005.

Yesterday's posts on mathematics and narrative discussed some properties
of the 3×3 grid (also known as the ninefold square ).

For some other properties, see (at the college-undergraduate, or MAA, level)–
Ezra Brown, 2001, "Magic Squares, Finite Planes, and Points of Inflection on Elliptic Curves."

His conclusion:

When you are done, you will be able to arrange the points into [a] 3×3 magic square,
which resembles the one in the book [5] I was reading on elliptic curves….

This result ties together threads from finite geometry, recreational mathematics,
combinatorics, calculus, algebra, and number theory. Quite a feat!

5. Viktor Prasolov and Yuri Solvyev, Elliptic Functions and Elliptic Integrals ,
    American Mathematical Society, 1997.

Brown fails to give an important clue to the historical background of this topic —
the word Hessian . (See, however, this word in the book on elliptic functions that he cites.)

Investigation of this word yields a related essay at the graduate-student, or AMS, level–
Igor Dolgachev and Michela Artebani, 2009, "The Hesse Pencil of Plane Cubic Curves ."

From the Dolgachev-Artebani introduction–

In this paper we discuss some old and new results about the widely known Hesse
configuration
  of 9 points and 12 lines in the projective plane P2(k ): each point lies
on 4 lines and each line contains 3 points, giving an abstract configuration (123, 94).

PlanetMath.org on the Hesse configuration

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110108-PlanetMath.jpg

A picture of the Hesse configuration–

The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix05B/grid3x3med.bmp” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

(See Visualizing GL(2,p), a note from 1985).

Related notes from this journal —

From last November —

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Story

m759 @ 10:12 PM

From the December 2010 American Mathematical Society Notices

http://www.log24.com/log/pix10B/101113-Ono.gif

Related material from this  journal—

Mathematics and Narrative and

Consolation Prize (August 19, 2010)

From 2006 —

Sunday December 10, 2006

 

 m759 @ 9:00 PM

A Miniature Rosetta Stone:

The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix05B/grid3x3med.bmp” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

“Function defined form, expressed in a pure geometry
that the eye could easily grasp in its entirety.”

– J. G. Ballard on Modernism
(The Guardian , March 20, 2006)

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance –
it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin,
Librarian of Congress, quoted in Beyond Geometry

Also from 2006 —

Sunday November 26, 2006

 

m759 @ 7:26 AM

Rosalind Krauss
in "Grids," 1979:

"If we open any tract– Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art  or The Non-Objective World , for instance– we will find that Mondrian and Malevich are not discussing canvas or pigment or graphite or any other form of matter.  They are talking about Being or Mind or Spirit.  From their point of view, the grid is a staircase to the Universal, and they are not interested in what happens below in the Concrete.

Or, to take a more up-to-date example…."

"He was looking at the nine engravings and at the circle,
checking strange correspondences between them."
The Club Dumas ,1993

"And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason."
Robert Plant ,1971

The nine engravings of The Club Dumas
(filmed as "The Ninth Gate") are perhaps more
an example of the concrete than of the universal.

An example of the universal*– or, according to Krauss,
a "staircase" to the universal– is the ninefold square:

The image “http://www.log24.com/theory/images/grid3x3.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

"This is the garden of Apollo, the field of Reason…."
John Outram, architect    

For more on the field of reason, see
Log24, Oct. 9, 2006.

A reasonable set of "strange correspondences"
in the garden of Apollo has been provided by
Ezra Brown in a mathematical essay (pdf).

Unreason is, of course, more popular.

* The ninefold square is perhaps a "concrete universal" in the sense of Hegel:

"Two determinations found in all philosophy are the concretion of the Idea and the presence of the spirit in the same; my content must at the same time be something concrete, present. This concrete was termed Reason, and for it the more noble of those men contended with the greatest enthusiasm and warmth. Thought was raised like a standard among the nations, liberty of conviction and of conscience in me. They said to mankind, 'In this sign thou shalt conquer,' for they had before their eyes what had been done in the name of the cross alone, what had been made a matter of faith and law and religion– they saw how the sign of the cross had been degraded."

– Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy ,
   "Idea of a Concrete Universal Unity"

"For every kind of vampire,
there is a kind of cross."
– Thomas Pynchon   

And from last October —

Friday, October 8, 2010

 

m759 @ 12:00 PM
 

Starting Out in the Evening
… and Finishing Up at Noon

This post was suggested by last evening's post on mathematics and narrative and by Michiko Kakutani on Vargas Llosa in this morning's New York Times .

http://www.log24.com/log/pix10B/101008-StartingOut.jpg

 

Above: Frank Langella in
"Starting Out in the Evening"

Right: Johnny Depp in
"The Ninth Gate"

http://www.log24.com/log/pix10B/101008-NinthGate.jpg

"One must proceed cautiously, for this road— of truth and falsehood in the realm of fiction— is riddled with traps and any enticing oasis is usually a mirage."

– "Is Fiction the Art of Lying?"* by Mario Vargas Llosa,
    New York Times  essay of October 7, 1984

* The Web version's title has a misprint—
   "living" instead of "lying."

"You've got to pick up every stitch…"

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Sunday December 10, 2006

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 9:00 pm
The Librarian
on Nobel Prize Day

"Time and chance
happeneth to them all."
— Ecclesiastes  

PA Lottery Dec. 10, 2006: Mid-day 569, Evening 048

Timeline Index:

Pythagoras, born ca. 569 B.C.

The number 048
may be interpreted
as referring to…

A Miniature
Rosetta Stone
:

The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix05B/grid3x3med.bmp” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

"Function defined form,
expressed in a pure geometry
that the eye could easily grasp
in its entirety."

— J. G. Ballard on Modernism
(The Guardian, March 20, 2006)

"The greatest obstacle to discovery
is not ignorance —
it is the illusion of knowledge."

— Daniel J. Boorstin,
Librarian of Congress,
quoted in Beyond Geometry

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Sunday May 22, 2005

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 12:25 pm
The Shining
of Friday the 13th

From Margalit Fox in today’s New York Times:

“Eddie Barclay, who for three decades after World War II was arguably the most powerful music mogul in Europe and inarguably the most flamboyant, died on [Friday] May 13 in Paris. He was 84….

… Mr. Barclay was best known for three things: popularizing American jazz in France in the postwar years; keeping the traditional French chanson alive into the age of rock ‘n’ roll; and presiding over parties so lavish that they were considered just the tiniest bit excessive even by the standards of the French Riviera….

Among the guests at some of his glittering parties… Jack Nicholson….”

The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix05/050522-Jack.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Related material:

“Joyce’s confidant in Zurich in 1918, Frank Budgen, luckily for us described the process of writing Ulysses…. ‘Not Bloom, not Stephen is here the principal personage, but Dublin itself… All towns are labyrinths…’  While working… Joyce bought a game called Labyrinth, which he played every evening for a time with his daughter, Lucia. From this game he cataloged the six main errors of judgment into which one might fall in seeking a way out of a maze.”

quoted by Bruce Graham from The Creators by Daniel Boorstin

“We’ll always have Paris.”

An Invariant Feast, Log24, Sept. 6, 2004

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Wednesday July 7, 2004

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 7:00 pm

Beyond Geometry

(Title of current L. A. art exhibit)

John Baez:

What is the difference between topology and geometry?

Geometry you learn in high school; topology in college. So, topology costs more.

A bit more seriously….

“The greatest obstacle to discovery
is not ignorance —
  it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin,
American historian, educator, writer.
Source: The Washington Post,
“The Six O’Clock Scholar,”
by Carol Krucoff (29 Jan. 1984)

For the illusion of knowledge,
see (for instance)
The Importance of Being Nothingness,
by Craig J. Hogan
(American Scientist, Sept.-Oct. 2001).

A bit more seriously…

“These cases are
neither harmless nor amusing.”
— Craig J. Hogan, op. cit.

For example:

“Thanks to Dr. Matrix
for honouring this website
with the Award for Science Excellence
on May 14, 2002 and selecting it
for prominent display in the categories
of Mathematics and Creative Minds.”

See also my notes
On Dharwadker’s Attempted Proof,
November 28, 2000, and
The God-Shaped Hole,
February 21, 2001.

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