(Continued from April 8, 2013.)
See Two Blocks Short of a Design (May 5, 2011).
(Continued from April 8, 2013.)
See Two Blocks Short of a Design (May 5, 2011).
A commenter on Saturday's "Seize the Dia" has
suggested a look at the work of one Mark Collins.
Here is such a look (click to enlarge):
I find attempts to associate pure mathematics with the words
"magic" or "mystic" rather nauseating. (H. F. Baker's work
on Pascal's mystic hexagram is no exception; Baker was
stuck with Pascal's obnoxious adjective, but had no truck
with any mystic aspects of the hexagram.)
The remarks above by Clifford Pickover on Collins, Dürer, and
binary representations may interest some non-mathematicians,
who should not be encouraged to waste their time on this topic.
For the mathematics underlying the binary representation of
Dürer's square, see, for instance, my 1984 article "Binary
Coordinate Systems."
Those without the background to understand that article
may enjoy, instead of Pickover's abortive attempts above at
mathematical vulgarization, his impressively awful 2009 novel
Jews in Hyperspace .
Pickover's 2002 book on magic squares was, unfortunately,
published by the formerly reputable Princeton University Press.
Related material from today's Daily Princetonian :
See also Nash + Princeton in this journal.
Two Blocks Short of a Design:
A sequel to this morning’s post on Douglas Hofstadter
Photo of Hofstadter by Mike McGrath taken May 13, 2006 |
Related material — See Lyche’s “Theme and Variations” in this journal
and Hofstadter’s “Variations on a Theme as the Essence of Imagination”
— Scientific American October 1982
A quotation from a 1985 book by Hofstadter—
“… we need to entice people with the beauties of clarity, simplicity, precision,
elegance, balance, symmetry, and so on.
Those artistic qualities… are the things that I have tried to explore and even
to celebrate in Metamagical Themas . (It is not for nothing that the word
‘magic’ appears inside the title!)”
The artistic qualities Hofstadter lists are best sought in mathematics, not in magic.
An example from Wikipedia —
Mathematics The Fano plane block design |
Magic The Deathly Hallows symbol— |
Part I: Random Walk
Part II: X's
3/22:
Part III: O's —
A Cartoon Graveyard
in honor of the late
Gene Persson †
Today's Garfield —
See also
Midsummer Eve's Dream:
"The meeting is closed
with the lord's‡ prayer
and refreshments are served."
† Producer of plays and musicals
including Album and
The Ruling Class
‡ Lower case in honor of
Peter O'Toole, star of
the film version of
The Ruling Class.
(This film, together with
O'Toole's My Favorite Year,
may be regarded as epitomizing
Hollywood's Jesus for Jews.)
Those who prefer
less randomness
in their religion
may consult O'Toole's
more famous film work
involving Islam,
as well as
the following structure
discussed here on
the date of Persson's death:
"The Moslems thought of the
central 1 as being symbolic
of the unity of Allah."
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