Prime Number Visualization Simulation Spiral

http://www.numbersimulation.com/

by gulbrandr • 14 years ago

82 21 14 years ago

Nice job. - I would suggest re-labling the btm controls to say "Left/RIght for Slower/Faster"

It's an interesting visualization, but it doesn't really seem to highlight anything new about the way prime numbers are structured. It's difficult to make connections between the spiral and the prime numbers, because the red pieces don't generally stand out strongly against the white pieces (at least not in any obvious pattern. There are cool things you can notice if you think about it long enough, but you notice these things without the help from the spiral too).

happyglucky3• 14 years ago

Visualizations aren't meant to highlight anything new, but rather to bring to light and visualize what is already known.

SeanLuke2• 14 years ago

What exactly is already known that this visualization is bringing to light?

jlarocco2• 14 years ago

I disagree with that. The entire point of data visualization is to highlight patterns in data to make the data easier to understand. Highlighting what's already known is a waste of time. A good visualization will help uncover something new.

I feel bad saying this, because it probably took a lot of work to make, but this prime number spiral is kind of pointless. What is it showing me? If I let the painfully slow animation run for a while, and look at the bigger picture, what insight will I gain about prime numbers? Probably nothing.

It's even a bit misleading, because to the best of my knowledge, there's no connection between spirals and prime numbers.

If I'm just being dense and not getting it, I'd love for somebody to explain it to me.

darklajid• 14 years ago

I love it. And as sad as it is that I have to point this out specifically: This site works awesome from this guy's couch on an Android device.

sabalaba• 14 years ago

Another great visualization of the primes is the famous Ulam spiral:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Ulam_1.pn...

kzahel• 14 years ago

It's a very beautiful visualization. I particularly enjoy seeing the period of each block correspond with the representative number. If only there were more visualizations like this for other mathematical concepts!

robbiep• 14 years ago

I wasn't aware of this. Thank you. I understand better what people mean when they say primes are fractal now

fumar• 14 years ago

I found this to be a great visual. I stared at it for quiet some time looking for the patterns. I thought it would be cool to put some music to it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnHhRtHmiCc

Edit: I will go back and fine tune the video so it syncs to the music.

kmm2• 14 years ago

Very cool! Too bad it's not possible to rewind though.

ggchappell• 14 years ago

It is possible. Hit the "backward" button at the top.

kmm2• 14 years ago

Woah, that did not exist yet when I made my comment. Thanks.

bjxrn• 14 years ago

Here's another prime number circle/visualization: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelpaukner/3977033600

The creator of that one links to a Geocities page (which doesn't exist anymore, of course), but I think that page probably moved here: http://www.magic-squares.net/moreprimes.htm#A%20Prime%20Circ...

denzil_correa• 14 years ago

Another Prime Number Pattern Visualization by Jason Davies which was posted on HN sometime back.

http://www.jasondavies.com/primos/

FWeinb• 14 years ago

A while ago I recreated the visualization of the Sieve of Eratosthenes from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieve_of_Eratosthenes) in Javascript: http://codepen.io/FWeinb/full/tmwnf

Prime Number Visualization Simulation Spiral

Related Stories