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
 
07 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 Sciences are Monuments Devoted to the Public Good

Moreover, the sciences are monuments devoted to the public good; each citizen owes to them a tribute proportional to his talents. While the great men, carried to the summit of the edifice, draw and put up the higher floors, the ordinary artists scattered in the lower floors, or hidden in the obscurity of the foundations, must only seek to improve what cleverer hands have created.
Folksonomies: science culture society
Folksonomies: science culture society
  1  notes

Each of us owes a tribute to them according to our talents, either improving what is there, or carrying society to even greater heights.