🚀 go-pugleaf

Louis Hom wrote:
> 
> So, I'm trying to collect posters' favorite Things in Math & Science.
>         For example, one of my favorite things is the solid that you get
> when you rotate y=1/(log x) about the x-axis -- it has finite volume but an
> infinite surface.  So if you had a container that shape, you could fill it
> up with some finite quantity of paint, but it would never be enough to
> actually paint the surface of the thing.

It would take a while to pump the paint from the top to the bottom of
the container, yes?  Hard to store, too.  And setting the container
upright or tipping it to pour is a little problematical, eh?  y=sin(1/x)
will give you nice accordian pleats in case you need a little container
expansion to hold a little more paint than you anticipated.

>         My interest in starting this collection grew out of a desire to
> write something about the Math/Science Aesthetic and realizing that I
> didn't have a lot of interesting examples readily at hand.  I don't know if
> I will ever write such an essay, but I think it would be fun to gather some
> examples at least.  Maybe I'll archive them on my web page or something.

Bullvalene (as in "bullshit' - there was some scepticism voiced pior to
its remarkable synthesis from cyclooctatetraene), the molecule without a
discrete structure (at least when warm), is the archetype of fluctional
degenerate structures.  Kewl.  Then came barbaralone (named after a
mistress) that does it even better.  Even trimethylsilyl ethers of
1,3-diketones have degenerate cis-enol ethers - flip, flop.

And let us not forget anholonomy in physics (Hannay angle, Berry
phase).  You can get here from here in the simple case, but you must go
around twice to end at the start.

-- 
Alan "Uncle Al" Schwartz
UncleAl0@ix.netcom.com ("zero" before @)
http://www.ultra.net.au/~wisby/uncleal.htm
 (Toxic URL! Unsafe for children, Democrats, and most mammals)
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"  The Net!