Math for Artists: Exponents and Radicals

http://www.cattail.nu/school_web/math107/math_artists.html

by toponium • 15 years ago

25 7 15 years ago

chwahoo• 15 years ago

I was expecting (or hoping) that the pictorial versions would somehow illuminate why these various identities hold. But they seem to be just an alternative set of symbols.

I wonder why numerals are used to represent 2 and 3 in some places, but stacked boxes are used in others?

The idea appears to be that artists find the use of colors easier to memorize / mentally manipulate compared to letters for variable identifiers. I'm not an artist, so I'm curious if others find this to be true.

hsmyers• 15 years ago

Actually as both artist and mathematician, the first thing I had to do is 'translate' her visualization into something I could relate to my visualization on a given subject. Hmmm--- that is not really clear; I suppose what I mean is that we all 'see' things differently, the trick is to line things up! BTW, I didn't really notice the colors, so for me at least they made little difference...

hammock• 15 years ago

What is the one with the eyeballs? I don't get that one.

corysama• 15 years ago

It's the same as the one right above it. It's just redone in a silly way to make it easier to remember. (The hair and lips don't mean anything)

CallMeV• 15 years ago

They just cancel each other out.

roryokane• 15 years ago

When I imagine mathematical operations like these, I sometimes imagine numbers moving around, distorting, and fading in and out in a way representative of the calculation. For instance, “x^2 * x” would show the x on the right moving onto the x on the left, and the 2 fading down to be replaced by a 3 fading in, like an odometer. I’d like to some day create a Flash animation of some calculation showing those movements.

sp332• 15 years ago

Looks just like variablekitten from Abstruse Goose: http://abstrusegoose.com/345

Math for Artists: Exponents and Radicals

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