Category Archives: Beauty of Math

Link Post: Applying Mathematics to Web Design

“Mathematics is beautiful.” This may sound absurd to people who wince at numbers and equations. But some of the most beautiful things in nature and our universe exhibit mathematical properties, from the smallest seashell to the biggest whirlpool galaxies. In fact, one of the greatest ancient philosophers, Aristotle, said: “The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.”

Because of its beautiful nature, mathematics has been a part of art and architectural design for ages. But it has not been exploited much for website design. This is probably because many of us regard mathematics as being antithetical to creativity. On the contrary, mathematics can be a tool to produce creative designs. That said, you don’t have to rely on math for every design. The point is that you should regard it as your friend, not a foe. For illustrative purposes, we created a couple of web designs that present mathematical principles discussed in this article. We are also giving away a couple of PSDs that you can use right away in your next design. Continue reading…

Origami and GeoGebra – a slightly different version

For GeoGebra enthusiasts who are attending GeoGebra conferences, don’t throw your GeoGebra flyers. Watch the video and see how useful it is. :-)

Potato chips and mathematics

If your math teacher told you that mathematics is everywhere, believe him.   Almost all the things that we see around (even things that we do not see)  are  related to mathematics  – even potato chips. Yes, even potato chips.

Some potato chips, particularly Pringles (I hope they give me 500 bucks for this), are in a shape of a saddle.  In mathematics a saddle-shaped graph is called a hyperbolic paraboloid (see left figure).

A hyperbolic paraboloid quadratic and doubly ruled surface given by the Cartesian equation z = \displaystyle\frac{y^2}{b^2} - \frac{x^2}{a^2}.  Now, whatever that means will be discussed when you take your analytic geometry course.

For now, let’s be happy that we  know that even potato chips can be modeled by graphs. :-)

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Sources: Omg Facts, Pringle’s Site, Wolfram Math World

Photo Credit: Hyperbolic Paraboloid (Wikimedia), Pringles chips (Wikimedia)

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