Lang or Artin?

Although I still have decades of stuff to cover before I can really compare Lang and Artin I do have an opinion. Those who studied either or both of them seem to agree on one thing: neither of the books should be used as a text for a course, let alone for self-study: they are works of reference. Now that's strange because at least Artin's book was written from many years of course notes. I think the books should be studied but with many companion books to help you get through. Artin wrote in the preface: "...Sometimes the exercise of deferring material showed that it could be deferred forever - that it was not essential. This happened with dual spaces and multilinear algebra. ..." I tried to start reading Representation theory, by Fulton and Harris with nothing more than an undergraduate abstract algebra introduction as preparation. I couldn't finish the book because it was packed with topics from multilinear algebra. - I have been warned, warned and warned to take it easy but I go for Lang, why not? Mathematics grew into my fascination and passion. What else can I do?

How much is 25 divided by 5 ?

25 divided by 5? That's 14 each. 25/5 = 14.

Cycle Index

Cycle index.

( No Group Theory without Number Theory. )

At last an accessible topology book...

... from Dover Books ( who else?! ).



For 15,80 euro you get a truly beautiful (pocket)book.

After browsing the first pages I am now able to prove Euler's formula on Polyhedra, the beautiful F(aces) - E(dges) + V(ertices) = 2. I can even explain what a polyhedron is in these few, simple and (in fact) beautiful words: A polyhedron is a complex which is topologically equivalent to a sphere.

A bargain

... from Dover Books.



Whenever I am in the city centre I have to go to my favourite bookshop. Since I can download most books that I need I don't buy books that often anymore. But for only 12 euro I couldn't resist this book full of beautiful theorems and exercises.

Flatland

"... Our Women are Straight Lines. ..."

JavaView

JavaView for Mathematica...

The Perfect Beauty

All I know is that there is a Flash program which is generating these images but I haven't got a clue how it's done.

Fibonacci sequence

Max Cohen, the main character in the movie Pi, explains some properties of the Fibonacci sequence.

True or false?

"... The current world record for pi memorization was made in 1995, when a Japanese man recited 42,000 digits from memory in just over nine hours. ..."

Would this really be true? I suppose so, since I read it on PI, the movie.

The Phi Number System

I watched the movie pi this weekend. A movie about a Number Theorist who thinks he has found a very, very special number of exactly 216 digits. Both the CIA, and Jewish fundamentalists are after him, the latter think the number is the key to The Garden of Eden. This movie is not a typical Hollywood thriller as it is directed by Darren Aronofsky, who later directed Requiem of a Dream. Filmed in 1998, it's a black and white movie trying to create an atmosphere of the late fifties or early sixties. Not that it matters, mathematics is the same in all times. Now, one million years ago and forever and forever in the future. Mathematics is exactly that what does not change over time. PI will forever be ~3.14.

( The mathematician, Max Cohen, is played by the same actor who played 'Arnold, the Shrink' in Requiem for a Dream, a great actor. In fact, the assistant of the doctor in Requiem, the Indian girl, is Max'es neighbour girl in pi. The older professor who has been searching for patterns in the digits of pi for more than 40 years ( without any result ) is the owner of the pawnshop in Requiem. That's what they call Trivia. )

I love mathematics it fills my life with joy, energy, enthusiasm. Take today, for instance. As I am in the middle of projects, mathematics projects I mean, I feel a bit unsure about the direction I should pursue. Computational Group Theory? Representation Theory? And then this idea of building a 3D-model of the BrainTwist game, including a group theoretic analysis of it all, and if that isn't enough, a solution for the game. Rather ambituous, although I am sure I can do it. The construction of the 3D Rubik gave me that confidence. I am still swimming in uncertainty. But the emptyness is gone. Filled with beaty of... the Phi Number System. It was as though lightning struck. I have been warned that pi is the sort of movie that slowly gets you, sometimes days after it was seen. In my case I noticed a strong resemblence with the 3x+1 Research I have been doing early 2005, how time can fly.

Where is all this beauty?

• phi on MathWorld
• phi

Serious work to be done...

... on math ( group theory ). Hard work is required. Work is play. Work hard, play hard.

( MORE LATER... )