Log24

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Desargues, Galois, Veblen, and Young

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 1:06 pm

This post was suggested by a review in the Jan. 2022
Notices of the American Mathematical Society :

My own sympathies are with Veblen.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Desargues and Galois in Japan

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 1:00 am

Related material now available online —

A less business-oriented sort of virtual reality —

Link to 'Desargues via Galois' in Japan

For example, "A very important configuration is obtained by
taking the plane section of a complete space five-point." 
(Veblen and Young, 1910, p. 39)—

'Desargues via Galois' in Japan (via Pinterest)

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Desargues via Galois

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 5:12 pm

The following image gives a brief description
of the geometry discussed in last spring's
Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry.

IMAGE- The large Desargues configuration in light of Galois geometry

Update of Aug. 7, 2013:  See also an expanded PDF version.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Classical Galois

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 12:26 pm

IMAGE- The large Desargues configuration and Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry

Click image for more details.

To enlarge image, click here.

Friday, April 19, 2013

The Large Desargues Configuration

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 9:25 am

Desargues' theorem according to a standard textbook:

"If two triangles are perspective from a point
they are perspective from a line."

The converse, from the same book:

"If two triangles are perspective from a line
they are perspective from a point."

Desargues' theorem according to Wikipedia
combines the above statements:

"Two triangles are in perspective axially  [i.e., from a line]
if and only if they are in perspective centrally  [i.e., from a point]."

A figure often used to illustrate the theorem,
the Desargues configuration , has 10 points and 10 lines,
with 3 points on each line and 3 lines on each point.

A discussion of the "if and only if" version of the theorem
in light of Galois geometry requires a larger configuration—
15 points and 20 lines, with 3 points on each line
and 4 lines on each point.

This large  Desargues configuration involves a third triangle,
needed for the proof   (though not the statement ) of the
"if and only if" version of the theorem. Labeled simply
"Desargues' Theorem," the large  configuration is the
frontispiece to Volume I (Foundations)  of Baker's 6-volume
Principles of Geometry .

Point-line incidence in this larger configuration is,
as noted in a post of April 1, 2013, described concisely
by 20 Rosenhain tetrads  (defined in 1905 by
R. W. H. T. Hudson in Kummer's Quartic Surface ).

The third triangle, within the larger configuration,
is pictured below.

IMAGE- The proof of the converse of Desargues' theorem involves a third triangle.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Veblen and Young in Light of Galois

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 1:00 am

Another in a series of figures illustrating
Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry:

IMAGE- Veblen and Young,1910 Desargues illustration, with 2013 Galois-geometry version

See also the original Veblen-Young figure in context.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Desargues via Rosenhain

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 6:00 pm

Background: Rosenhain and Göpel Tetrads in PG(3,2)

Introduction:

The Large Desargues Configuration

Added by Steven H. Cullinane on Friday, April 19, 2013

Desargues' theorem according to a standard textbook:

"If two triangles are perspective from a point
they are perspective from a line."

The converse, from the same book:

"If two triangles are perspective from a line
they are perspective from a point."

Desargues' theorem according to Wikipedia 
combines the above statements:

"Two triangles are in perspective axially  [i.e., from a line]
if and only if they are in perspective centrally  [i.e., from a point]."

A figure often used to illustrate the theorem, 
the Desargues configuration , has 10 points and 10 lines,
with 3 points on each line and 3 lines on each point.

A discussion of the "if and only if" version of the theorem
in light of Galois geometry requires a larger configuration—
15 points and 20 lines, with 3 points on each line 
and 4 lines on each point.

This large  Desargues configuration involves a third triangle,
needed for the proof   (though not the statement ) of the 
"if and only if" version of the theorem. Labeled simply
"Desargues' Theorem," the large  configuration is the
frontispiece to Volume I (Foundations)  of Baker's 6-volume
Principles of Geometry .

Point-line incidence in this larger configuration is,
as noted in the post of April 1 that follows
this introduction, described concisely 
by 20 Rosenhain tetrads  (defined in 1905 by
R. W. H. T. Hudson in Kummer's Quartic Surface ).

The third triangle, within the larger configuration,
is pictured below.

IMAGE- The proof of the converse of Desargues' theorem involves a third triangle.

 

 

 

A connection discovered today (April 1, 2013)—

(Click to enlarge the image below.)

Update of April 18, 2013

Note that  Baker's Desargues-theorem figure has three triangles,
ABC, A'B'C', A"B"C", instead of the two triangles that occur in
the statement of the theorem. The third triangle appears in the
course of proving, not just stating, the theorem (or, more precisely,
its converse). See, for instance, a note on a standard textbook for 
further details.

(End of April 18, 2013 update.)

Update of April 14, 2013

See Baker's Proof (Edited for the Web) for a detailed explanation 
of the above picture of Baker's Desargues-theorem frontispiece.

(End of April 14, 2013 update.)

Update of April 12, 2013

A different figure, from a site at National Tsing Hua University,
shows the three triangles of Baker's figure more clearly:

IMAGE- Desargues' theorem with three triangles, and Galois-geometry version

(End of update of April 12, 2013)

Update of April 13, 2013

Another in a series of figures illustrating
Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry:
IMAGE- Veblen and Young 1910 Desargues illustration, with 2013 Galois-geometry version

See also the original Veblen-Young figure in context.

(End of update of April 13, 2013)

Rota's remarks, while perhaps not completely accurate, provide some context
for the above Desargues-Rosenhain connection.  For some other context,
see the interplay in this journal between classical and finite geometry, i.e.
between Euclid and Galois.

For the recent  context of the above finite-geometry version of Baker's Vol. I
frontispiece, see Sunday evening's finite-geometry version of Baker's Vol. IV
frontispiece, featuring the Göpel, rather than the Rosenhain, tetrads.

For a 1986 illustration of Göpel and Rosenhain tetrads (though not under
those names), see Picturing the Smallest Projective 3-Space.

In summary… the following classical-geometry figures
are closely related to the Galois geometry PG(3,2):

Volume I of Baker's Principles  
has a cover closely related to 
the Rosenhain tetrads in PG(3,2)
Volume IV of Baker's Principles 
has a cover closely related to
the Göpel tetrads in PG(3,2) 
Foundations
(click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

Higher Geometry
(click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, April 10, 2023

Space

Filed under: General — Tags: , , — m759 @ 3:09 am

(Perspective Not  as Symbolic Form)

From a post of June 8, 2014

Some background on the large Desargues configuration

See August 6, 2013 — Desargues via Galois.

Friday, November 25, 2022

“Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 1:33 pm

"Both Hal and the students were great interlocutors
with lots of ideas and differing perspectives."

Leah Dickerman, MoMA, May 10, 2010, at
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2010/05/10/
class-snapshot-origins-abstraction
 

Later . . .

See as well Desargues + Galois.

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Box Geometry: Space, Group, Art  (Work in Progress)

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 2:06 am

Many structures of finite geometry can be modeled by
rectangular or cubical arrays ("boxes") —
of subsquares or subcubes (also "boxes").

Here is a draft for a table of related material, arranged
as internet URL labels.

Finite Geometry Notes — Summary Chart
 

Name Tag .Space .Group .Art
Box4

2×2 square representing the four-point finite affine geometry AG(2,2).

(Box4.space)

S4 = AGL(2,2)

(Box4.group)

 

(Box4.art)

Box6 3×2 (3-row, 2-column) rectangular array
representing the elements of an arbitrary 6-set.
S6  
Box8 2x2x2 cube or  4×2 (4-row, 2-column) array. S8 or Aor  AGL(3,2) of order 1344, or  GL(3,2) of order 168  
Box9 The 3×3 square. AGL(2,3) or  GL(2,3)  
Box12 The 12 edges of a cube, or  a 4×3  array for picturing the actions of the Mathieu group M12. Symmetries of the cube or  elements of the group M12  
Box13 The 13 symmetry axes of the cube. Symmetries of the cube.  
Box15 The 15 points of PG(3,2), the projective geometry
of 3 dimensions over the 2-element Galois field.
Collineations of PG(3,2)  
Box16 The 16 points of AG(4,2), the affine geometry
of 4 dimensions over the 2-element Galois field.

AGL(4,2), the affine group of 
322,560 permutations of the parts
of a 4×4 array (a Galois tesseract)

 
Box20 The configuration representing Desargues's theorem.    
Box21 The 21 points and 21 lines of PG(2,4).    
Box24 The 24 points of the Steiner system S(5, 8, 24).    
Box25 A 5×5 array representing PG(2,5).    
Box27 The 3-dimensional Galois affine space over the
3-element Galois field GF(3).
   
Box28 The 28 bitangents of a plane quartic curve.    
Box32 Pair of 4×4 arrays representing orthogonal 
Latin squares.
Used to represent
elements of AGL(4,2)
 
Box35 A 5-row-by-7-column array representing the 35
lines in the finite projective space PG(3,2)
PGL(3,2), order 20,160  
Box36 Eurler's 36-officer problem.    
Box45 The 45 Pascal points of the Pascal configuration.    
Box48 The 48 elements of the group  AGL(2,3). AGL(2,3).  
Box56

The 56 three-sets within an 8-set or
56 triangles in a model of Klein's quartic surface or
the 56 spreads in PG(3,2).

   
Box60 The Klein configuration.    
Box64 Solomon's cube.    

— Steven H. Cullinane, March 26-27, 2022

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

The Rosenhain Symmetry

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 12:26 pm

See other posts now so tagged.

Hudson's  Rosenhain tetrads,  as 20 of the 35 projective lines in PG(3,2),
illustrate Desargues's theorem as a symmetry within 10 pairs of squares 
under rotation about their main diagonals:

IMAGE- Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry

See also "The Square Model of Fano's 1892 Finite 3-Space."

The remaining 15 lines of PG(3,2), Hudson's Göpel tetrads, have their
own symmetries . . . as the Cremona-Richmond configuration.

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Pattern

Filed under: General — m759 @ 7:59 pm

See also Plan 9 from Yale
and Galois Desargues.

Friday, February 21, 2020

Frozen

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 12:30 pm

Barbara Rose on 'ABC Art'

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Master Plan from Outer Space

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

IMAGE- The large Desargues configuration and Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Plan 9 from Inner Space

Filed under: G-Notes,General,Geometry — m759 @ 9:57 am

Click the image for some context.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Principles Before Personalities*

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

(Some Remarks for Science Addicts)

Principles —

IMAGE- The large Desargues configuration in light of Galois geometry

Personalities —

* See "Tradition Twelve."

Friday, August 11, 2017

Symmetry’s Lifeboat

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 9:16 pm

A post suggested by the word tzimtzum  (see Wednesday)
or tsimtsum  (see this morning) —

Lifeboat from the Tsimtsum  in Life of Pi  —

Another sort of tsimtsum, contracting infinite space to a finite space —

IMAGE- Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

A Date at the Death Cafe

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 8:48 pm

The New York TImes  reports this evening that
"Jon Underwood, Founder of Death Cafe Movement,"
died suddenly at 44 on June 27. 

This  journal on that date linked to a post titled "The Mystic Hexastigm."

A related remark on the complete 6-point   from Sunday, April 28, 2013

(See, in Veblen and Young's 1910 Vol. I, exercise 11,
page 53: "A plane section of a 6-point in space can  
be considered as 3 triangles perspective in pairs
from 3 collinear points with corresponding sides
meeting in 3 collinear points." This is the large  
Desargues configuration. See Classical Geometry
in Light of Galois Geometry
.)

This  post was suggested, in part, by the philosophical ruminations
of Rosalind Krauss in her 2011 book Under Blue Cup . See 
Sunday's post  Perspective and Its Transections . (Any resemblance
to Freud's title Civilization and Its Discontents  is purely coincidental.)

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Perspective and Its Transections

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 5:27 pm

The title phrase is from Rosalind Krauss (Under Blue Cup , 2011) —

Another way of looking at the title phrase —

"A very important configuration is obtained by
taking the plane section of a complete space five-point." 
(Veblen and Young, 1910, p. 39) —

'Desargues via Galois' in Japan (via Pinterest) 

For some context, see Desargues + Galois in this journal.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Image Albums

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , , — m759 @ 1:05 pm

Pinterest boards uploaded to the new m759.net/piwigo

Diamond Theorem 

Diamond Theorem Correlation

Miracle Octad Generator

The Eightfold Cube

Six-Set Geometry

Diamond Theory Cover

Update of May 2 —

Four-Color Decomposition

Binary Galois Spaces

The Galois Tesseract

Update of May 3 —

Desargues via Galois

The Tetrahedral Model

Solomon's Cube

Update of May 8 —

Art Space board created at Pinterest

Friday, April 28, 2017

A Generation Lost in Space

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 2:00 pm

The title is from Don McLean's classic "American Pie."

A Finite Projective Space —

A Non-Finite Projective Space —

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Partner, Anchor, Decompose

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 12:31 pm

See also a figure from 2 AM ET April 26 

" Partner, anchor, decompose. That's not math.
That's the plot to 'Silence of the Lambs.' "

Greg Gutfeld, September 2014

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Core Statements

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 1:06 pm

"That in which space itself is contained" — Wallace Stevens

An image by Steven H. Cullinane from April 1, 2013:

The large Desargues configuration of Euclidean 3-space can be 
mapped canonically to the 4×4 square of Galois geometry —

'Desargues via Rosenhain'- April 1, 2013- The large Desargues configuration mapped canonically to the 4x4 square

On an Auckland University of Technology thesis by Kate Cullinane —
On Kate Cullinane's book 'Sample Copy' - 'The core statement of this work...'
The thesis reportedly won an Art Directors Club award on April 5, 2013.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Rosenhain and Göpel Revisited

The authors Taormina and Wendland in the previous post
discussed some mathematics they apparently did not know was
related to a classic 1905 book by R. W. H. T. Hudson, Kummer's
Quartic Surface
.

"This famous book is a prototype for the possibility
of explaining and exploring a many-faceted topic of
research, without focussing on general definitions,
formal techniques, or even fancy machinery. In this
regard, the book still stands as a highly recommendable,
unparalleled introduction to Kummer surfaces, as a
permanent source of inspiration and, last but not least, 
as an everlasting symbol of mathematical culture."

— Werner Kleinert, Mathematical Reviews ,
     as quoted at Amazon.com

Some 4×4 diagrams from that book are highly relevant to the
discussion by Taormina and Wendland of the 4×4 squares within
the 1974 Miracle Octad Generator of R. T. Curtis that were later,
in 1987, described by Curtis as pictures of the vector 4-space over
the two-element Galois field GF(2).

Hudson did not think of his 4×4 diagrams as illustrating a vector space,
but he did use them to picture certain subsets of the 16 cells in each
diagram that he called Rosenhain and Göpel tetrads .

Some related work of my own (click images for related posts)—

Rosenhain tetrads as 20 of the 35 projective lines in PG(3,2)

IMAGE- Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry

Göpel tetrads as 15 of the 35 projective lines in PG(3,2)

Anticommuting Dirac matrices as spreads of projective lines

Related terminology describing the Göpel tetrads above

Ron Shaw on symplectic geometry and a linear complex in PG(3,2)

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Pascal’s Finite Geometry

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 12:01 am

See a search for "large Desargues configuration" in this journal.

The 6 Jan. 2015 preprint "Danzer's Configuration Revisited," 
by Boben, Gévay, and Pisanski, places this configuration,
which they call the Cayley-Salmon configuration , in the 
interesting context of Pascal's Hexagrammum Mysticum .

They show how the Cayley-Salmon configuration is, in a sense,
dual to something they call the Steiner-Plücker configuration .

This duality appears implicitly in my note of April 26, 1986,
"Picturing the smallest projective 3-space." The six-sets at
the bottom of that note, together with Figures 3 and 4
of Boben et. al. , indicate how this works.

The duality was, as they note, previously described in 1898.

Related material on six-set geometry from the classical literature—

Baker, H. F., "Note II: On the Hexagrammum Mysticum  of Pascal,"
in Principles of Geometry , Vol. II, Camb. U. Press, 1930, pp. 219-236  

Richmond, H. W., "The Figure Formed from Six Points in Space of Four Dimensions,"
Mathematische Annalen  (1900), Volume 53, Issue 1-2, pp 161-176

Richmond, H. W., "On the Figure of Six Points in Space of Four Dimensions," 
Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics , Vol. 31 (1900), pp. 125-160

Related material on six-set geometry from a more recent source —

Cullinane, Steven H., "Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry," webpage

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Foundations

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 6:00 am

IMAGE- Desargues's theorem in light of Galois geometry

To enlarge image, click here.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Uncommon Noncore

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 10:30 am

This post was suggested by Greg Gutfeld’s Sept. 4 remarks on Common Core math.

Problem: What is 9 + 6 ?

Here are two approaches suggested by illustrations of Desargues’s theorem.

Solution 1:

9 + 6 = 10 + 5,
as in Common Core (or, more simply, as in common sense), and
10 + 5 = 5 + 10 = 15 as in Veblen and Young:

Solution 2:

In the figure below,
9 + 6 = no. of  V’s + no. of  A’s + no. of C’s =
no. of nonempty squares = 16 – 1 = 15.
(Illustration from Feb. 10, 2014.)

The silly educationists’ “partner, anchor, decompose” jargon
discussed by Gutfeld was their attempt to explain “9 + 6 = 10 + 5.”

As he said of the jargon, “That’s not math, that’s the plot from ‘Silence of the Lambs.'”

Or from Richard, Frank, and Marcus in last night’s “Intruders”
(BBC America, 10 PM).

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Sunday School

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 9:29 am

Paradigms of Geometry:
Continuous and Discrete

The discovery of the incommensurability of a square’s
side with its diagonal contrasted a well-known discrete 
length (the side) with a new continuous  length (the diagonal).
The figures below illustrate a shift in the other direction.
The essential structure of the continuous  configuration at
left is embodied in the discrete  unit cells of the square at right.

IMAGE- Concepts of Space: The Large Desargues Configuration, the Related 4x4 Square, and the 4x4x4 Cube

See Desargues via Galois (August 6, 2013).

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Sticks and Stones

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 6:29 am

The title is from this morning's previous post.

From a theater review in that post—

… "all flying edges and angles, a perpetually moving and hungry soul"

… "a formidably centered presence, the still counterpoint"

A more abstract perspective:

IMAGE- Concepts of Space

See also Desargues via Galois (August 6, 2013).

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Vide

Some background on the large Desargues configuration

"The relevance of a geometric theorem is determined by what the theorem
tells us about space, and not by the eventual difficulty of the proof."

— Gian-Carlo Rota discussing the theorem of Desargues

What space  tells us about the theorem :  

In the simplest case of a projective space  (as opposed to a plane ),
there are 15 points and 35 lines: 15 Göpel  lines and 20 Rosenhain  lines.*
The theorem of Desargues in this simplest case is essentially a symmetry
within the set of 20 Rosenhain lines. The symmetry, a reflection
about the main diagonal in the square model of this space, interchanges
10 horizontally oriented (row-based) lines with 10 corresponding
vertically oriented (column-based) lines.

Vide  Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry.

* Update of June 9: For a more traditional nomenclature, see (for instance)
R. Shaw, 1995.  The "simplest case" link above was added to point out that
the two types of lines named are derived from a natural symplectic polarity 
in the space. The square model of the space, apparently first described in
notes written in October and December, 1978, makes this polarity clearly visible:

A coordinate-free approach to symplectic structure

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Play

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 7:47 pm

From a recreational-mathematics weblog yesterday:

"This appears to be the arts section of the post,
so I’ll leave Martin Probert’s page on
The Survival, Origin and Mathematics of String Figures
here. I’ll be back to pick it up at the end. Maybe it’d like
to play with Steven H. Cullinane’s pages on the
Finite Geometry of the Square and Cube."

I doubt they would play well together.

Perhaps the offensive linking of  the purely recreational topic
of string figures to my own work was suggested by the
string figures' resemblance to figures of projective geometry.

A pairing I prefer:  Desargues and Galois —

IMAGE- Concepts of Space: The large Desargues configuration and two figures illustrating Cullinane models of Galois geometry

For further details, see posts on Desargues and Galois.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Mystery Box III: Inside, Outside

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , , , — m759 @ 2:28 pm

(Continued from Mystery Box, Feb. 4, and Mystery Box II, Feb. 5.)

The Box

Inside the Box

Outside the Box

For the connection of the inside  notation to the outside  geometry,
see Desargues via Galois.

(For a related connection to curves  and surfaces  in the outside
geometry, see Hudson's classic Kummer's Quartic Surface  and
Rosenhain and Göpel Tetrads in PG(3,2).)

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Up-to-Date Geometry

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 7:24 pm

The following excerpt from a January 20, 2013, preprint shows that
a Galois-geometry version of the large Desargues 154203 configuration,
although based on the nineteenth-century work of Galois* and of Fano,** 
may at times have twenty-first-century applications.

IMAGE- James Atkinson, Jan. 2013 preprint on Yang-Baxter maps mentioning finite geometry

Some context —

Atkinson's paper does not use the square model of PG(3,2), which later
in 2013 provided a natural view of the large Desargues 154203 configuration.
See my own Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry.  Atkinson's
"subset of 20 lines" corresponds to 20 of the 80 Rosenhain tetrads
mentioned in that later article and pictured within 4×4 squares in Hudson's
1905 classic Kummer's Quartic Surface.

* E. Galois, definition of finite fields in "Sur la Théorie des Nombres,"
  Bulletin des Sciences Mathématiques de M. Férussac,
  Vol. 13, 1830, pp. 428-435.

** G. Fano, definition of PG(3,2) in "Sui Postulati Fondamentali…,"
    Giornale di Matematiche, Vol. 30, 1892, pp. 106-132.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sermon

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 11:00 am

(Simplicity continued)

"Understanding a metaphor is like understanding a geometrical
truth. Features of various geometrical figures or of various contexts
are pulled into revealing alignment with one another by  the
demonstration or the metaphor.

What is 'revealed' is not that the alignment is possible; rather,
that the alignment is possible reveals the presence of already-
existing shapes or correspondences that lay unnoticed. To 'see' a
proof or 'get' a metaphor is to experience the significance of the
correspondence for what the thing, concept, or figure is ."

— Jan Zwicky, Wisdom & Metaphor , page 36 (left)

Zwicky illustrates this with Plato's diamond figure
​from the Meno  on the facing page— her page 36 (right).

A more sophisticated geometrical figure—

Galois-geometry key to
Desargues' theorem:

   D   E   F
 S'  P Q R
 S  P' Q' R'
 O  P1 Q1 R1

For an explanation, see 
Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sermon

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 11:00 am

Best vs. Bester

The previous post ended with a reference mentioning Rosenhain.

For a recent application of Rosenhain's work, see
Desargues via Rosenhain (April 1, 2013).

From the next day, April 2, 2013:

"The proof of Desargues' theorem of projective geometry
comes as close as a proof can to the Zen ideal.
It can be summarized in two words: 'I see!' "

– Gian-Carlo Rota in Indiscrete Thoughts (1997)

Also in that book, originally from a review in Advances in Mathematics ,
Vol. 84, Number 1, Nov. 1990, p. 136:
IMAGE- Rota's review of 'Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups'-- in a word, 'best'

See, too, in the Conway-Sloane book, the Galois tesseract  
and, in this journal, Geometry for Jews and The Deceivers , by Bester.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Octad Generator

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , , — m759 @ 11:00 pm

… And the history of geometry  
Desargues, Pascal, Brianchon and Galois
in the light of complete n-points in space.

(Rewritten for clarity at about 10 AM ET April 29, with quote from Dowling added.
Updated with a reference to a Veblen and Young exercise (on p. 53) on April 30.)

Veblen and Young, Projective Geometry, Vol. I ,
Ginn and Company, 1910, page 39:

"The Desargues configuration. A very important configuration
is obtained by taking the plane section of a complete space five-point."

Each of figures 14 and 15 above has 15 points and 20 lines.
The Desargues configuration within each figure is denoted by
10 white points and 10 solid lines, with 3 points on each line and
3 lines on each point. Black  points and dashed  lines indicate the
complete space five-point and lines connecting it to the plane section
containing the Desargues configuration.

In a 1915 University of Chicago doctoral thesis, Archibald Henderson
used a complete space six -point to construct a configuration of
15 points and 20 lines in the context not of Desargues '  theorem, but
rather of Brianchon 's theorem and of the Pascal  hexagram.
Henderson's 1915 configuration is, it turns out, isomorphic to that of
the 15 points and 20 lines in the configuration constructed via a
complete space five -point five years earlier by Veblen and Young.
(See, in Veblen and Young's 1910 Vol. I, exercise 11, page 53:
"A plane section of a 6-point in space can  be considered as
3 triangles perspective in pairs from 3 collinear points with
corresponding sides meeting in 3 collinear points." This is the
large  Desargues configuration. See Classical Geometry in Light of 
Galois Geometry
.)

For this large  Desargues configuration see April 19.
For Henderson's complete six –point, see The Six-Set (April 23).
That post ends with figures relating the large  Desargues configuration
to the Galois  geometry PG(3,2) that underlies the Curtis
Miracle Octad Generator  and the large Mathieu group M24 —

IMAGE- Geometry of the Six-Set, Steven H. Cullinane, April 23, 2013

See also Note on the MOG Correspondence from April 25, 2013.

That correspondence was also discussed in a note 28 years ago, on this date in 1985.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Caution: Slow Art

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

"Of course, DeLillo being DeLillo,
it’s the deeper implications of the piece —
what it reveals about the nature of
film, perception and time — that detain him."

— Geoff Dyer, review of Point Omega

Related material:

A phrase of critic Robert Hughes,
"slow art," in this journal.

A search for that phrase yields the following
figure from a post on DeLillo of Oct. 12, 2011:

The 3x3 square

The above 3×3 grid is embedded in a 
somewhat more sophisticated example
of conceptual art from April 1, 2013:

IMAGE- A Galois-geometry key to Desargues' theorem

Update of April 12, 2013

The above key uses labels from the frontispiece
to Baker's 1922 Principles of Geometry, Vol. I ,
that shows a three-triangle version of Desargues's theorem.

A different figure, from a site at National Tsing Hua University,
shows the three triangles of Baker's figure more clearly:

IMAGE- Desargues' theorem with three triangles (the large Desargues configuration) and Galois-geometry version

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Museum Piece

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 3:01 pm

Roberta Smith in 2011 on the American Folk Art Museum (see previous post):

"It could be argued that we need a museum of folk art
the way we need a museum of modern art,
to shine a very strong, undiluted light on
a very important achievement."

Some other aesthetic remarks:

"We have had a gutful of fast art and fast food.
What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time
as a vase holds water: art that grows out of modes
of perception and whose skill and doggedness
make you think and feel; art that isn't merely sensational,
that doesn't get its message across in 10 seconds,
that isn't falsely iconic, that hooks onto something
deep-running in our natures. In a word, art that is
the very opposite of mass media. For no spiritually
authentic art can beat mass media at their own game."

— Robert Hughes, speech of June 2, 2004,
     quoted here June 15, 2007.

Perhaps, as well as museums of modern art and of folk art,
we need a Museum of Slow Art. 

One possible exhibit, from this journal Monday:

The diagram on the left is from 1922.  The 20 small squares at right
that each have 4 subsquares darkened were discussed, in a different
context, in 1905. They were re-illustrated, in a new context
(Galois geometry), in 1986. The "key" square, and the combined
illustration, is from April 1, 2013. For deeper background, see
Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry.

Those who prefer faster art may consult Ten Years After.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Rota in a Nutshell

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

"The proof of Desargues' theorem of projective geometry
comes as close as a proof can to the Zen ideal.
It can be summarized in two words: 'I see!' "

— Gian-Carlo Rota in Indiscrete Thoughts (1997)

Also in that book, originally from a review in Advances in Mathematics,
Vol. 84, Number 1, Nov. 1990, p. 136:

IMAGE- Rota's review of 'Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups'-- in a word, 'best'

Related material:

Pascal and the Galois nocciolo ,
Conway and the Galois tesseract,
Gardner and Galois.

See also Rota and Psychoshop.

Baker on Configurations

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 11:11 am

The geometry posts of Sunday and Monday have been
placed in finitegeometry.org as

Classical Geometry in Light of Galois Geometry.

Some background:

See Baker, Principles of Geometry , Vol. II, Note I
(pp. 212-218)—

On Certain Elementary Configurations, and
on the Complete Figure for Pappus's Theorem

and Vol. II, Note II (pp. 219-236)—

On the Hexagrammum Mysticum  of Pascal.

Monday's elucidation of Baker's Desargues-theorem figure
treats the figure as a 15420configuration (15 points, 
4 lines on each, and 20 lines, 3 points on each).

Such a treatment is by no means new. See Baker's notes
referred to above, and 

"The Complete Pascal Figure Graphically Presented,"
a webpage by J. Chris Fisher and Norma Fuller.

What is new in the Monday Desargues post is the graphic
presentation of Baker's frontispiece figure using Galois geometry :
specifically, the diamond theorem square model of PG(3,2).

See also Cremona's kernel, or nocciolo :

Baker on Cremona's approach to Pascal—

"forming, in Cremona's phrase, the nocciolo  of the whole."

IMAGE- Definition of 'nocciolo' as 'kernel'

A related nocciolo :

IMAGE- 'Nocciolo': A 'kernel' for Pascal's Hexagrammum Mysticum: The 15 2-subsets of a 6-set as points in a Galois geometry.

Click on the nocciolo  for some
geometric background.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Starring the Diamond

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 2:02 pm

"In any geometry satisfying Pappus's Theorem,
the four pairs of opposite points of 83
are joined by four concurrent lines.
"
— H. S. M. Coxeter (see below)

Continued from Tuesday, Sept. 6

The Diamond Star

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11B/110905-StellaOctangulaView.jpg

The above is a version of a figure from Configurations and Squares.

Yesterday's post related the the Pappus configuration to this figure.

Coxeter, in "Self-Dual Configurations and Regular Graphs," also relates Pappus to the figure.

Some excerpts from Coxeter—

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11B/110908-Coxeter83.jpg

The relabeling uses the 8 superscripts
from the first picture above (plus 0).
The order of the superscripts is from
an 8-cycle in the Galois field GF(9).

The relabeled configuration is used in a discussion of Pappus—

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11B/110908-Coxeter83part2.jpg

(Update of Sept. 10, 2011—
Coxeter here has a note referring to page 335 of
G. A. Miller, H. F. Blichfeldt, and L. E. Dickson,
Theory and Applications of Finite Groups , New York, 1916.)

Coxeter later uses the the 3×3 array (with center omitted) again to illustrate the Desargues  configuration—

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11B/110908-Coxeter103.jpg

The Desargues configuration is discussed by Gian-Carlo Rota on pp. 145-146 of Indiscrete Thoughts

"The value  of Desargues' theorem and the reason  why the statement of this theorem has survived through the centuries, while other equally striking geometrical theorems have been forgotten, is in the realization that Desargues' theorem opened a horizon of possibilities  that relate geometry and algebra in unexpected ways."

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