IMAGINE MATH 6 : mathematics and culture, XXth anniversary.

317 Pages·2018·16.35 MB·English

by  Michele Emmer

Imagine Math 6
Michele Emmer (cid:2) Marco Abate
Editors
Imagine Math 6
Between Culture and Mathematics
Editors
MicheleEmmer MarcoAbate
SapienzaUniversityofRome,retired DepartmentofMathematics
Rome,Italy UniversityofPisa
and Pisa,Italy
IVSLA,IstitutoVenetodiScienze,
LettereedArti
Venice,Italy
ISBN978-3-319-93948-3 ISBN978-3-319-93949-0(eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93949-0
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To
MariaPiaCavaliere
GiorgioIsrael
RezaSarhangi
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
MicheleEmmer
PartI HomagetoZahaHadid
ZHA,ZahaHadidArchitects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
GianlucaRacana
ZahaHadid:FluidandTopologicalArchitecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
MicheleEmmer
PartII Mathematics&Media
AMathematicianatMUSE,theScienceMuseumofTrento . . . . . . . 49
MarcoAndreatta
ToBringMathtotheWorld,StartwithMathematicians . . . . . . . . . 57
FrankMorgan
MyLifeintheShapeofMaupertuis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
OsmoPekonen
PartIII Mathematics&Music
FromMusictoMathematicsandBackwards:IntroducingAlgebra,
TopologyandCategoryTheoryintoComputationalMusicology . . 77
MorenoAndreatta
MathematicsandLabyrinthsinTwentiethCentury’sMusic . . . . . . . 89
SusannaPagano
PartIV Mathematics&Applications
HowtoPreventCrimesUsingEarthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
MarcoAbate
vii
viii Contents
ANegativeNumberasSumofAllNaturalNumbers . . . . . . . . . . . 115
MarcoCodegone
TheArchofTitusattheCircusMaximus:FromMathematicalModels
toVirtualReconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
CorradoFalcolini
TheSpaceofPlanarSoapBubbleClusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
FrankMorgan
MathematicsasaSocialLanguage:A(PastandPresent)Phenomenology 145
PaoloRossi
PartV VisualMathematics
Balancein...Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
GiordanoBrunoandMassimoCiafrei
MathematicalandNumericalDescriptionoftheHeartFunction . . . . 171
AlfioQuarteroni,ChristianVergara,andMikelLandajuela
WeirdGears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
GianMarcoTodesco
PartVI Mathematics&Art
HistoricalNotesonStarGeometryinMathematics,ArtandNature . . 197
AldoBrigaglia,NiclaPalladino,andMariaAlessandraVaccaro
PentagonalStructuresasImpulseforArt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
CornelieLeopold
Mathematics,aCloserLook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
VincentMoncorgé
PartVII Mathematics&Physics
DrowningbyNumbers:TopologyandPhysicsinFluidDynamics . . . . 249
AmauryMouchet
PartVIIIMathematics&Literature
ÉlogedesMathématiques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
MicheleEmmer
LucaPacioli:LettersfromVenice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
PaolaMagnaghi-DelfinoandTulliaNorando
Dante’sUnderworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
RiccardoSchiavi
TheSimpsonsandTheirMathematicalSecrets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
SimonSingh
Contents ix
FromAlgebratotheSecretsoftheUniverse:TheFascinatingLife
ofMarySomerville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
ElisabettaStrickland
ImagineMath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Editors and Contributors
AbouttheEditors
Michele Emmer is a member of the Istituto Veneto di Lettere, Scienze e Arti in
Venice, founded by Napoleon. Former Professor of Mathematics at La Sapienza
UniversityinRome(until2015),since1997hehasorganizedtheMathematicsand
Culture conferences in Venice. He has organized several exhibitions, cooperating
withTheBiennaleofArtofVeniceandthePradaFoundationamongothers.Heisa
memberoftheboardoftheJournal“Leonardo:art,scienceandtechnology”,MIT
Press, a filmmaker, including a film on M.C. Escher, and author of the series “Art
andMath”.Heisalsoeditoroftheseries“MathematicsandCulture”and“Imagine
Math”bySpringer-Verlag,aswellastheseries“TheVisualMind”byMITPress.
Hismostrecentbooksinclude“Bolledisaponetraarteematematica”,2010,which
won the best Italian essay award at Viareggio 2010; “Numeri immaginari: cinema
ematematica”,BollatiBoringhieri,2012;“IlmioHarry’sbar”,Archintoed.,2012;
“Imagine Math 3”, Springer 2013; “Flatlandia di E. Abbott, with DVD, music by
EnnioMorricone,2008,“ImagineMaths4”2015,“ImagineMaths5”,2016.“Rac-
contomatematico:memorieimpersonali”,toappear2019,BollatiBoringhieri.
Marco Abate is a Full Professor of Geometry at the University of Pisa. He has
written more than one hundred scientific papers and textbooks, as well as several
papersonthepopularizationofmathematics.Hisinterestsincludeholomorphicdy-
namics,geometricfunctiontheory,differentialgeometry,writing(comicbooksand
more), photography, origami, and travelling (having already visited Antarctica his
nextdestinationistheMoon).Hiswebsiteishttp://pagine.dm.unipi.it/abate/.
xi
xii EditorsandContributors
Contributors
MarcoAbate DipartimentodiMatematica,UniversitàdiPisa,Pisa,Italy
MarcoAndreatta DipartimentodiMatematica,UniversitàdiTrento,Trento,Italy;
MUSE,MuseodiScienzediTrento,Trento,Italy
Moreno Andreatta IRCAM, CNRS UMR 9912 STMS, Sorbonne University,
Paris,France;CNRSIRMAUMR7501,GREAM,USIAS,Strasbourg,France
AldoBrigaglia UniversitàdegliStudidiPerugia,Perugia,Italy
GiordanoBruno ISIARomaDesign,Rome,Italy
MassimoCiafrei ISIARomaDesign,Rome,Italy
Marco Codegone Dipartimento di Scienze Matematiche, Politecnico di Torino,
Torino,Italy
MicheleEmmer SapienzaUniversityofRome,retired,Rome,Italy;IVSLA,Isti-
tutoVenetodiScienze,LettereedArti,Venice,Italy
CorradoFalcolini DipartimentodiArchitettura,UniversitàRomaTre,Rome,Italy
MikelLandajuela MOX,DipartimentodiMatematica,PolitecnicodiMilano,Mi-
lan,Italy
CornelieLeopold FacultyofArchitecture,DescriptiveGeometryandPerspective,
TechnischeUniversitätKaiserslautern,Kaiserslautern,Germany
PaolaMagnaghi-Delfino LaboratorioFDS,DipartimentodiMatematica,Politec-
nicodiMilano,Milan,Italy
VincentMoncorgé NeuvillesurSaône,France
FrankMorgan WilliamsCollege,Williamstown,MA,USA
AmauryMouchet LaboratoiredeMathématiquesetdePhysiqueThéorique,Uni-
versitéFrançoisRabelaisdeTours,Tours,France
TulliaNorando LaboratorioFDS,DipartimentodiMatematica,PolitecnicodiMi-
lano,Milan,Italy
Susanna Pagano Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali P. Mascagni di Livorno,
Livorno,Italy
NiclaPalladino UniversitàdegliStudidiPerugia,Perugia,Italy
OsmoPekonen Agora,UniversityofJyväskylä,Jyväskylä,Finland
AlfioQuarteroni MOX,DipartimentodiMatematica,PolitecnicodiMilano,Mi-
lan,Italy
GianlucaRacana ZahaHadidArchitects,London,UnitedKingdom