16 APR 2018 by ideonexus

 Euclid's Elements as a Game

"If video games had been around in 350 BC, Euclid would have made a video game," Devlin told me. The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements would have been the supplemental material, a PDF file that you could read if you wanted to. "People think I'm joking—I absolutely mean that. Euclid would not have written a textbook, he would have designed a video game." Peek at any of his proofs, Devlin said, and you'll quickly find that the great Greek mathematician, often called the father of geometry, ...
Folksonomies: mathematics classics gaming
Folksonomies: mathematics classics gaming
  1  notes
 
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Scientists Must Remain Modest

Vulnerable, like all men, to the temptations of arrogance, of which intellectual pride is the worst, he [the scientist] must nevertheless remain sincere and modest, if only because his studies constantly bring home to him that, compared with the gigantic aims of science, his own contribution, no matter how important, is only a drop in the ocean of truth.
  1  notes

Because they must know that their contributions to the body of knowledge are just drops in an ocean.

24 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Inferring the Universe From Our Limited Perspective

It may seem rash indeed to draw conclusions valid for the whole universe from what we can see from the small corner to which we are confined. Who knows that the whole visible universe is not like a drop of water at the surface of the earth? Inhabitants of that drop of water, as small relative to it as we are relative to the Milky Way, could not possibly imagine that beside the drop of water there might be a piece of iron or a living tissue, in which the properties of matter are entirely diffe...
Folksonomies: induction
Folksonomies: induction
  1  notes

We are like the inhabitants of a drop of water, unable to imagine other elements and molecules outside of it.

31 DEC 2011 by ideonexus

 Mandarin for "White" is a "Drop" of "Sun"

丶 and 日 = 白
Folksonomies: mandarin chinese characters
Folksonomies: mandarin chinese characters
   notes

Scientifically accurate whether it was intended or not.

10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus

 A Drop of Water to a Miniature Person

“Are there big people on your world, or are they all small like you?” Lyra said. “We know how to deal with big people,” Tialys replied, not very helpfully, and went to talk quietly to the Lady. They spoke too softly for Lyra to hear, but she enjoyed watching them sip dewdrops from the marram grass to refresh themselves. Water must be different for them, she thought to Pantalaimon: imagine drops the size of your fist! They’d be hard to get into; they’d have a sort of elastic rind,...
Folksonomies: perspectives
Folksonomies: perspectives
  1  notes

Would have an elastic rind from the surface tension that would need to be broken before drinking.