Well, it makes me go wow at least.

July 29, 2004 2:36 AM

Math that makes you go wow:A multi-disciplinary exploration of non-orientable surfaces.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken (12 comments total)

This is exactly what I needed today - a very long and interesting read. Cheers stavros.
posted by Orange Goblin at 4:19 AM on July 29, 2004

My favorite beverage from a Klein bottle. Yum!
[Snaps] for stavros.
posted by nofundy at 4:50 AM on July 29, 2004

Here's just the thing for your morning coffee/tea, nofundy. You've been posting some awesome links lately mr.wonderchicken - thanks.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:26 AM on July 29, 2004

It's apparently not quite a non-orientable surface, but there's apparently an awesome [Boing Boing]new playground climber that definitely recalls that little fable they've got on this site.

Very cool link.
posted by LairBob at 5:34 AM on July 29, 2004

MathGeekFilter! (And yes, that's a good thing.) Great link, Stav, many thanks.
posted by Zonker at 5:49 AM on July 29, 2004

Wow!

(I did recursion; I couldn't resist.)
posted by mischief at 6:23 AM on July 29, 2004

dig^

Sheesh, I need coffee.
posted by mischief at 6:25 AM on July 29, 2004

Great stuff -- makes me nostalgic for my long-gone days as an apprentice mathematician. (I loved the useless stuff like topology and number theory, they wanted me to take calculus and more calculus, so I decamped for the more welcoming shores of the languages department.) I particularly enjoyed the section on one of my favorite novels, Nabokov's The Gift -- I'll have to read it again with this in mind. Thanks, stav!
posted by languagehat at 8:08 AM on July 29, 2004

My pleasure. The math geek lives on within me too, buried deep as he is.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:37 PM on July 29, 2004

languagehat> I loved the useless stuff like topology and number theory

languagehat: I'm stabbing your effigy with pins. In a nice way.
posted by snarfodox at 4:05 PM on July 29, 2004

languagehat> I loved the useless stuff like topology and number theory

I've felt the same way (and no doubt Harding would have agreed with us both), but those nice folks at RSA Systems might dissent....along with scientists looking at the rather startling possible connections between the nontrivial Riemann zeta zeros and certain phenomenom of quantum physics (energy eigenvalues).
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 12:31 AM on July 30, 2004

I should clarify: I'm not saying that stuff was actually useless, it's just that all my life I've only been interested in what I perceived as useless (ancient Greek, Indo-European linguistics, the New York Mets, &c). If I had discovered that physicists could make use of the obscure theoretical math I was cramming my brain with, I would immediately have lost interest.

snarfodox: Ow! Quit that!
posted by languagehat at 6:42 AM on July 30, 2004