Dartmouth pattern course

October 29, 2003 10:03 PM

Mathematics and art are thoroughly explored as two intertwined fields, in this online version of a Dartmouth course focusing on patterns [more inside].
posted by edlundart (10 comments total)

[I found this when looking for information on Islamic patterns. Some of the links on the left don't work properly, but you can figure out their URLs easily by... ahem... following the pattern.]
posted by edlundart at 10:03 PM on October 29, 2003

A MATHEMATICIAN, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas. ... The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics. The best mathematics is serious as well as beautiful--'important' if you like, but the word is very ambiguous, and 'serious' expresses what I mean much better.

-- GH Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 11:17 PM on October 29, 2003

sweet! there goes another potentially productive morning...
posted by swordfishtrombones at 12:18 AM on October 30, 2003

A MATHEMATICIAN, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns.

Everything is pattern, including us. There is nothing else.
posted by rushmc at 3:22 AM on October 30, 2003

11:15 Restate my assumptions:

1. Mathematics is the language of nature.
2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature.
posted by davebush at 3:50 AM on October 30, 2003

Cool link, edlundart - thanks! There are some good "math art" links in this taz post too!
posted by madamjujujive at 5:58 AM on October 30, 2003

Yeah, I love all pattern stuff (and thus happen to end up spending a lot more time wandering around math-related pages than one who once made a D in algebra has any right to do), so I'm really surprised I haven't come across this site before. Thanks a lot, edlundart!
posted by taz at 6:07 AM on October 30, 2003

I was also a poor math student, but have become increasingly interested in math in sort of a broader sense. Math is a lot more fun for me when i don't have to do it.
posted by edlundart at 12:41 PM on October 30, 2003

cool thanks! maybe they could do mathematics and music, too, eventually? might like these books :D
posted by kliuless at 9:34 PM on October 30, 2003

i'm with edlundart--and what about randomness and/or chaos?
posted by amberglow at 9:36 PM on October 30, 2003