Board index › Topical Discussion › Computers, Math, Science, and Technology

What are the most beautiful fields of geometry?

Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

JSNS
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 31 Oct 2011
Age: 117
Gender: Male
Posts: 73

14 Nov 2011, 1:50 pm

Besides fractals? And why?



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 89
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

14 Nov 2011, 2:25 pm

JSNS wrote:
Besides fractals? And why?


That is a very subjective question. And there are so many geometric fields and subjects of interest, particularly if you include topology and manifolds.

ruveyn



pete1061
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Nov 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,766
Location: Portland, OR

16 Nov 2011, 1:07 am

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Personally, I find a simple beauty in the platonic solids.



barnabear
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 16 Sep 2011
Age: 65
Gender: Male
Posts: 189
Location: Hampshire, UK

26 Nov 2011, 5:12 pm

JSNS wrote:
Besides fractals? And why?


You might want to have a look at the work of William Latham. He is a sculptor who used computer modelling and an evolutionary selection approach to develop weird computer images and animations, some in 3-D. You could call this evolutionary computational geometry.

He worked with Professor Stephen Todd in the mid 1980's at the IBM Scientific Centre at Winchester.

William is now a Professor at Goldsmith's College in London.



graywyvern
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Aug 2010
Age: 68
Gender: Male
Posts: 667
Location: texas

26 Nov 2011, 7:44 pm

i always liked topology. a lot of higher math is so abstract it's just playing with symbols, but in topology there are ideas that seem to me to be at the very limit of the thinkable & there's a pleasure in that.


_________________
"I have always found that Angels have the vanity
to speak of themselves as the only wise; this they
do with a confident insolence sprouting from systematic
reasoning." --William Blake