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#9892 11/07/00 10:46 AM
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Emanuela

I read a book on topology many years ago in the school library and was fascinated by the Mobius strip and the Klein bottle. I believe there is a glass-blower who sells 'Klein bottles' over the 'net, if you're interested. Of course, since he can't twist them in the fourth dimension, they're not 'actual' Klein bottles, but the closest thing you'll get to a bottle without an inside.

The shape that interests me most, topologically, is the torus - it seems to be capable of doing anything, and fitting into just about any sphere of scientific experimentation...

cheer

the sunshine warrior


#9893 11/07/00 04:21 PM
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Speaking of Möbius strips and Klein (little?) bottles, one of the geometrical phenomena that I love best is the tesseract, the 4th-dimenional (or hyper-) cube. You can get a two-dimensional representation of this at:

http://www.illusionworks.com/html/tesseract.html




#9894 11/07/00 05:20 PM
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Yes, I'm a bit of a torus fan myself - love the tesseract site, Anna.

Looks like there are more mathematicians on this site than former English students.


#9895 11/07/00 05:23 PM
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I have an idea, Maverick.

We can count up uses of "momentarily" versus "disorientate" - the loser gets the hot lard treatment that Father Steve is cooking up over there in sunny Seattle.


#9896 11/07/00 06:05 PM
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Looks like there are more mathematicians on this site than former English students.

As someone whose idea of advanced mathematics was using a PC to add instead of a calculator, I have to say that the statement above seems very true. It's also one of the nicest things about this board. With my lifelong indifference toward maths, I have always admired Lewis Carroll for being both a mathematician and a wordsmith. Then I stumbled across this place, and discovered that the combination is by no means as rare as I had thought. Thanks to all the renaissance beings who have shown that a love of science and of language are not mutually exclusive.


#9897 11/07/00 06:25 PM
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>Looks like there are more mathematicians on this site than former English students.

I'm trying to think of someone who has admitted to the latter...


#9898 11/07/00 09:11 PM
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BA (Eng Lit) Bombay University (at the Elphinstone College, to be precise, with one of the most wonderful English departments one could ever hope for). No qualifications in maths at all.


#9899 11/07/00 09:32 PM
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at the Elphinstone College, to be precise

You went to a college for elves??
No wonder your thoughts are so magical!


#9900 11/07/00 09:47 PM
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I've come to the conclusion that science is the new art. There are so many exciting things being written about science these days that it almost puts the novel in the shade.


#9901 11/07/00 10:52 PM
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>Looks like there are more mathematicians on this site than former English students.

I'm trying to think of someone who has admitted to the latter...


Does current English student count?


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