Marko Niemi has translated Friedrich Schlegel’s mathematical poem for us. Marko also poses the question what happens if you divide the God by zero one more time.
I would love to hear Paul Gailiunas expound on that question. I think he would shy away from the idea of exploring the idea of God divided by zero but he may give us an answer to what happens when you divide infinity by zero.
Marko Niemi just sent me this link: (click here) …It looks very interesting! ... unfortunately I can not read German. Maybe someone will translate this for us. Marko tells us it was written by the German philosopher Friedrich Schlegel in the 19th century. Even though I can not translate it, I do know the beauty of dividing by zero. Although mathematically dividing by zero is undefined, the limit as you reach zero approaches infinity. In other words if you graph 1/x you can see the asymptote blow up in your face right at zero and it is a wonderful sight!
It is also interesting to see how artists gravitate toward dividing by zero. An example of this beauty can be seen in the taoist poem above by Karl Kempton.
Here is another thought on dividing by zero
Marko just sent me a translation of Schlegel's poem I will show it in the next blog entry
Here is a link to the translation: click here
Bridges Conference on Mathematical Connections in Art, Music and Science starts Aug 2 2006 --- Click Here to list the Abstracts for the 2006 proceedings.
I had mentioned that Bernar Venet influenced me in the late 1970's. I have always enjoyed his work. I found a very nice essay about Venet by the Mathematician Karl Heinrich Hofmann. What I liked the most about this essay is its illumination of the fact that Venet does not present math as art but math as it is. However, the context in which Venet displays his work is in an art gallery or museum.
Click here for the essay
My piece “Centered” was accepted in the Bridges Exhibit of Mathematical Art.
There is a lot of very interesting Mathematical Art in the Show Check out the other Art at the following link.
I have always found Mytho-spiritual aphorisms to be beautiful and every time I discover a new one if feel my life has new depth. They seem to me to be the archetypical fabric in all mythologies / religions as I have found them to be translatable and transmutable between the myths. I have also found that translating them into the language of math to be aesthetically rewarding. The piece righteousness above is one such aphorism which basically states that the more you display righteousness the less you really have. Of course this aphorism can be said for many disciplines for it seems we have all experienced the braggart who is more interested in covering his insecurities than setting an example for us to follow.
The equation is 'D' is proportional to 1/r ... or in otherwords 'D' is inversely proportional to r
I don't know where this came from but it reminds me of the logic used by a mathematical poet I know.
click here for the video
Here we have some interesting early visual poetry from Karl Kempton which used mathematical programing to plot these poems the link takes you to a page on Dan Wabers wonderful minimalist concrete poetry site. Here is the main page: minimalist concrete poetry
Here is a link to a wonderful Mobius Poem by Endwar. Very Nice!
Click here for the Mobius Poem
Do the muses scatter ancient fragments of thought or do they just perpetuate them. How is it that the ancient Greek Titans can still speak?
also see Orthogonal Space Poem
