Category Archives: mathematics

my tantalizing HTTP log

To whoever searched for 18 and solar eclipses golden ratio: I don’t think the 18-year cycle of eclipses has anything to do with the golden ratio; if you know of (or find) a nexus, please let me know. Speaking of … Continue reading

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time for fun

Partly as a protest against the dirigisme presupposed in the institution of “Daylight Saving Time”, I’ve been tempted to set my computer’s clock to mean local solar time; I’m at 122 degrees West longitude, so my mail would be marked … Continue reading

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tantalizing

Jean-François Colonna makes elaborate and striking mathematical images. I only wish they had more annotation.

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if Deep Space Nine had been made in 1968

Paper wormhole model by Hop David

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hard stars

Vladimir Bulatov has made some awesome stellated polyhedra in wood. When I showed the small stellated dodecahedron to my housemate, she asked, “Did you make that in PoV-Ray?”

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never say impossible?

Milton Mintz has struggled since 1963 to do the impossible: to trisect the angle, square the circle and double the cube using “only” a compass and straightedge. He shows procedures for the first two, which I have not attempted to … Continue reading

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Take Phi

I wonder whether it’s possible to write decent music with a fractional number of beats to a measure; by which I mean not that each measure should end with a fractional beat, but rather — imagine that a lunar month … Continue reading

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