Log24

From the former date above —

From the latter date above —

From March 2018 —

The term "parametrization," as discussed in Wikipedia,
seems useful for describing labelings that are not, at least
at first glance, of a vector-space  nature.

Examples: The labelings of a 4×4 array by a blank space
plus the 15 two-subsets of a six-set (Hudson, 1905) or by a
blank plus the 5 elements and the 10 two-subsets of a five-set
(derived in 2014 from a 1906 page by Whitehead), or by 
a blank plus the 15 line diagrams of the diamond theorem.

Thus "parametrization" is apparently more general than
the word "coodinatization" used by Hermann Weyl —

“This is the relativity problem:  to fix objectively
a class of equivalent coordinatizations and to
ascertain the group of transformations S
mediating between them.”

— Hermann Weyl, The Classical Groups ,
Princeton University Press, 1946, p. 16

Note, however, that Weyl's definition of "coordinatization"
is not limited to vector-space  coordinates. He describes it
as simply a mapping to a set of reproducible symbols . 

(But Weyl does imply that these symbols should, like vector-space 
coordinates, admit a group of transformations among themselves
that can be used to describe transformations of the point-space
being coordinatized.)

(A sequel to the previous post, Perfect Number)

Since antiquity,  six has been known as
"the smallest perfect number." The word "perfect"
here means that a number is the sum of its 
proper divisors — in the case of six: 1, 2, and 3.

The properties of a six-element set (a "6-set") 
divided into three 2-sets and divided into two 3-sets
are those of what Burkard Polster, using the same 
adjective in a different sense, has called 
"the smallest perfect universe" — PG(3,2), the projective
3-dimensional space over the 2-element Galois field.

A Google search for the phrase "smallest perfect universe"
suggests a turnaround in meaning , if not in finance, 
that might please Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on her birthday —

The semantic  turnaround here in the meaning  of "perfect"
is accompanied by a model  turnaround in the picture  of PG(3,2) as
Polster's tetrahedral  model is replaced by Cullinane's square  model.

Further background from the previous post —

See also Kirkman's Schoolgirl Problem.

"Ageometretos me eisito."—
"Let no one ignorant of geometry enter."—
Said to be a saying of Plato, part of the
seal of the American Mathematical Society—

For the birthday of Marissa Mayer, who turns 41 today —

VOGUE Magazine,
AUGUST 16, 2013 12:01 AM
by JACOB WEISBERG —

"As she works to reverse the fortunes of a failing Silicon Valley
giant, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer has fueled a national debate
about the office life, motherhood, and what it takes to be the
CEO of the moment.

'I really like even numbers, and
I like heavily divisible numbers.
Twelve is my lucky number—
I just love how divisible it is.
I don’t like odd numbers, and
I really don’t like primes.
When I turned 37,
I put on a strong face, but
I was not looking forward to 37.
But 37 turned out to be a pretty amazing year.
Especially considering that
36 is divisible by twelve!'

A few things may strike you while listening to Marissa Mayer
deliver this riff . . . . "

Yes, they may.

A smaller number for Marissa's meditations:

Six has been known since antiquity as the first "perfect" number.
Why it was so called is of little interest to anyone but historians
of number theory  (a discipline that is not, as Wikipedia notes, 
to be confused with numerology .)

What part geometry , on the other hand, played in Marissa's education,
I do not know.

Here, for what it's worth, is a figure from a review of posts in this journal
on the key role played by the number six in geometry —

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

A useful article on finite geometry,
"21 – 6 = 15: A Connection between Two Distinguished Geometries,"
by Albrecht Beutelspacher, American Mathematical Monthly ,
Vol. 93, No. 1, January 1986, pp. 29-41, is available for purchase
at JSTOR.

This article is related to the geometry of the six-set.
For some background, see remarks from 1986 at finitegeometry.org.