Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 7

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:15:09 GMT

In your own space, share something non-fannish about yourself. A passion or a hobby or a talent, something that people might not know about you. We are more than just our fandoms. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This was tough because I tend to be very close-lipped about my non-fannish life on the internet, but I eventually figured out that I could talk a bit about math, which was my major in collage and something I've always found fascinating.

I actually chose my username, coprime, because it was a math term that was unique and that I liked the look of. Two whole numbers are coprime if the only whole, positive number that divides both of them neatly is one. As an example, 9 can be divided by 1, 3, and 9 while 22 can be divided by 1, 2, 11, and 22. The only number in both those lists is 1, so 9 and 22 are coprime. (As a counterexample, 9 and 15 are not coprime because both are divisible by 3.) It's not a term or idea that I ever used in my studies at school, but as I said I liked the look of the word.

I've also dug out some math-related links from my bookmarks that I think laypeople might also find interesting or fun (as well as two more math-intensive links).

-A video about the surprising Menger Sponge and its cross section. If I were a cartoon character, I would have had hearts in my eyes while watching this video. It does a good job explaining what's going on in friendly terms, and I think the cross sections are beautiful to look at. (Sorry to any visually impaired persons reading this because while there is narration explaining things, it's a bit of a brain-twisting idea even with being able to seeing the model. I doubt it's easily understandable without the model.)

-What the Tortoise Said to Laurie is an Alice in Wonderland-esque look at the idea o infinity via an infinitely long, two-inch piece of string. Infinity is one of those ideas that's fun to explore because it lends itself to all sorts of mental diversions.

-How to make your bagel into a Möbius strip, for those who like a little math with their breakfast. Neat looking even if you don't have a bagel yourself handy to experiment on.

-Finding Point Nemo, the spot in the ocean furthest from any land, and the answer is not where I would have guessed. There's not much explanation here of how the computer calculated this point, but I find it an interesting bit of mathematically discovered trivia.

-A function that is continuous at only one point, and this link is something you need some higher math (basic calculus) to get. But if you do understand calculus, I think this is a pretty nifty function.

-The Tau Manifesto, positing a replacement for π that makes a very compelling argument. This is super-math geeky, I'm afraid, but the basic idea is that π is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter while τ is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its radius. And by changing π to τ, a lot of things found in trigonometry (which are then populated up into higher mathematics) get simplified. I find it an interesting thought experiment, even though I know π is not getting replaced anytime soon.

-A comic poking fun at the word problems you used to do in elementary school, to close out my links. This one should be understandable to everyone.

( Transcript under here )

And two book recommendations! Fantasia Mathematica and The Mathematical Magpie, both edited by Clifton Fadiman. They contain short stories, cartoons, poems, and other things that have a mathematical bent. A lot of the things in these books are laypeople playing around with ideas like infinity or multiple dimensions, so I don't think any extensive math knowledge is required to enjoy them. I adore these books because of the imagination and the fun the various authors have with all these ideas.

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