Day 21: Heart of Mathematics

• Today:
  • More questions about infinity?
    • What does this line from Amazing Grace's sixth stanza have to do with class?
      When we've been here ten thousand years...
      bright shining as the sun.
      We've no less days to sing God's praise...
      than when we've first begun.
      

      John Newton 1725-1807 (stanza 6 Anon); here's the interesting story of the author, a slave trader.

  • "The Sexiest Rectangle" - or is it just cute? The Golden Section in Art and Architecture
    • Note on the rectangle contest, page 234: what's wrong with squares?
    • or not? Many people think that if you look hard enough, you'll find them - or any rectangles you're particularly interested in!
    • Interestingly, one of the canvasses by Turner claimed to show the Golden Rectangle is of "Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying" -- so much for Amazing Grace!

  • What sizes do U.S. flags come in? (How about Togolese Flags?)

  • How to construct a golden rectangle (use a credit card?)

  • How to construct a logarithmic spiral (see this site, partially wacko....)

  • Let's look at some problems:
    • I.4
    • I.7
    • II.1
    • II.2
    • II.5

• Next time: 4.5: The Platonic Solids Turn Amorous (Joe, Dane)

Links:

• Two-dimensional Geometry and the Golden section
• Golden Section - An Overview