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…

The Mathematician’s Clock

The clock below is called the Sheldon Cooper’s clock (I searched for it at Amazon, but the best that I could get is  this math clock). If this clock exists, I really want to buy one.  

I am also confused with 0b. Is it a hexadecimal number or a Greek number?  In hexadecimal, B stands for 11, and in the Greek system, according to one of the comments in the clock’s website, 0 which is actually \theta stands from 2, and b stands for 9, so 2 + 9 = 11. I am not sure how Greek numerations work, so I don’t really know which of the explanations above is correct.

What do you think?

The Codebreaker Game

Codebreaker is an online logic game that allows the player to guess  a correct color combination “code.” In each guess (represented by the rows of circles in the leftmost part of the diagram), the computer places  black circles in  smaller pegs (see circles below the Accept button in the diagram) to indicate the number of colors in the right position, and white circles to indicate the number of correct colors in the wrong position. The player is allowed up to eight guesses to win the game, otherwise he loses.

The Codebreaker Game is very similar to Mastermind, a well-known board invented by Mordecai Meirowitz. It’s a good game for developing critical thinking of students. A good activity would be to let students develop their own strategy of making the least number of guesses in breaking the code.

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