Maths.

[rhowaldt]

Maths. i know you Americans shooed away the humble 's', but since i am trying to learn better English, we do it properly.

okay, so with that out of the way: i don't know much about maths, just that it is pretty cool and confusing and occult while still being scientific, which i fucking love. seeing how i do not understand much of it, i tend to run with the simpler applications of it. one example is the Fibonacci-sequence, which i use whenever i can, for example when crocheting (and during sex, but that is for another time).

now, seeing how we are all a bunch of guys and gals who some would call 'nerds', i think i can safely assume there are at least one or two of you here who actually understand a bunch of maths, or at least more than i do. so i figured it might be nice and interesting and fun to have a thread about maths.

how do i envision this thread? any fucking way you want.
but i'll start with two nice things for people such as myself, who have to continuously try and grasp the mysteries of maths, while never fully understanding it. (then again, i have made a pretty good point some other time about how nobody is ever going to be able to fully understand anything, but, well, you know what i mean.)

first off, the magnificent Dragon Curve, explained in a Numberphile video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCyC-K_PnRY

for those of you who like their information dry and Wikipedian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_curve
for more of the awesome Numberphile, go: http://www.numberphile.com/

second, a continuation of the Dragon Curve but now going into fractals, in a video by the fantastic Vi Hart. this one is substantially more difficult to follow, not just because she speaks so fast, but also because the maths can just get a bit complex at times (for me, at least). however, as i said somewhere before, if you only understand half of something, keep going. you will pick up enough interesting shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdyociU35u8

wanna get more doodling & maths? check out Vi Hart's YouTube channel, or do a search for Doodling in Math Class (without the 's', this time).

now, let's talk Maths!

[rust collector]

Haha, that was pretty cool, in its own way.
I just have half a brain, which is unable to process math, so I don't have much to say.

I just had to say it was cool,and remember that in English "I"as in "me" (in this case you) is capitalized

[rhowaldt]

i especially love the fact that the Dragon Scales are unpredictable at first, but then become a complex pattern. and from Vi Hart's video, the fact that they defy the dimensions by hovering in between them.

btw, just remembered: if you like playful and simple yet intruiging maths, check out the book Flatland.

btw2, @rusty: the non-capitalization is by choice :) - i get to choose because i call myself a poet, and they can disregard language-rules for the sake of Art :D

[ivanovnegro]

I sucked so hard in maths with or without s that I won't be able to contribute anything interesting here. :) But let's see, maybe Rho will change that.

[RandomCharacter]

I was a math whiz. Somebody had to say it.

Tim

[wuxmedia]

I asked to be dropped out of the top set in Maths, because I wanted an easy ride, still got a good mark.
10 years of smoking illicit substance finished that off.

I'm pretty confident about teaching my children maths. until 'A' level (16/17)

[hinto]

http://www.numberphile.com/index.html
^Is a great site.
-Hinto

[bones]

My kids have already surpassed my math skills, so I am no longer any use to them as far as helping with math homework goes.

I do, however, think Dr. Fiorella Terenzi is hot. I think she has a big brain for the maths. Probably more than Sheldon Cooper, even. :D

http://www.fiorella.com/

[hinto]

^ Bones, I here echoes of "Dammit Jim, I'm a Dr., not a Mathematician" ;)
-Hinto

[bones]

^ Hahaha, yes!

[machinebacon]

I'm with ivan and bones here, if it is Maths I leave it to the others. rhosey mentioned the fibonacci sequence, which is actually used in the bpswm window manager. So rho, you might change to a real WM now :)
Apart from that, this is my last post here :D

[rust collector]

bye, we will miss you!

[elixir]

If anyone wants to know anything about math, I am actually currently in Calculus 3 and I will answer any questions to the best of my knowledge. I am obviously no mathematician, but my degree requires knowing a lot of math so I like to say I have been taught more than average :)

[ivanovnegro]

...which is actually used in the bpswm window manager. So rho, you might change to a real WM now :)

And there is a patch for dwm, Fibonacci layout.

[hinto]

Practical Math:
Fractal antenna
-Hinto

[pidsley]

...which is actually used in the bpswm window manager. So rho, you might change to a real WM now :)

And there is a patch for dwm, Fibonacci layout.

Monsterwm has a similar patch. The windows get smaller and smaller until they are useless.

[p120d16y]

I've been watching a bunch of the numberphile videos. The vids about deciphering the Enigma machine are great. I've got a huge interest in cryptography and other mathematics.

[hinto]

^ and don't forget Freakonomics
I love this stuff... A BS in Math, Software Developer, and an MBA (I had to learn how to talk)
I work for a company whose bread and butter is math.
-Hinto

[rhowaldt]

epic thread revival!

my girl and i are doing geometric patterns on canvas, and via that route i predictably ended up reading about Sacred Geometry. that led to Qaballa where i encountered uncle Crowley, and al of a sudden i'm trying to grasp the fourth dimension. watched a bunch of videos, and everybody who has even the slightest interest in maths, or even those who dont, should read Flatland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland) - and then came across this thing, a 3d rotatable tesseract, aka hypercube, aka 4th dimensional cube. it is amazing. go play with it and try and wrap your head around it. no calculations involved! just watch and interact and wreck your brain ;) - http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2798981/

on a slightly related note, Metatron's Cube is pretty cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatron%27s_Cube

see you on the other side! :D