Message #71

From: Jesse Thompson <ibutton77@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Intro from a new member
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 22:33:46 -0800

Achilles: Say, fancy meeting you here friend. What is
that you fellows are studying on this Pattalop?

Tortoise: That’s "Laptop" my athleticly inclined
comrade. I beleive this gentleman is attempting to
solve a Fourth Dimentional Mathematical Puzzle of
Extraordinary Significance.

Achilles: But I was under the impression that pattalop
veiwing devices only used 2 dimentions, height and
width..

Tortoise: Ah, but some cunning disciples of Babbage
and Turing have devised a way to mathemagically
project an *image* of a Fourth Dimentional Puzzle into
a Three Dimentional Space, which is then projected
like a pictograph onto a 2 dimentional..

Jesse: Geroff! you’re getting fingerprints all over
the screen, ya teenage mutant ninja weirdos. :P

— Mark Oram <markoram109@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> Melinda kindly invited me to join this group and
> asked
> me to write a few lines of introduction, so here
> goes.
>
> My name is Mark Oram and I turned 37 in February of
> this year. I lived the first 35 years of my life in
> sunny(?) England (mainly in the London area) but
> moved
> to Denver USA just over two years ago to marry Diana
> and settle down on the other side of the Atlantic.
> (I’m pleased to say that Diana is still my wife,
> despite my many hours spent working on the 4D cube!)
>
> When we are working for our livings we both are
> research scientists, currently baseed at the
> University of Colorado Health Sciences Center;
> Micorbiology department. I am a molecular biologist
> by
> training and I’m finishing off some work related to
> how the particular sequence of DNA modulates the
> activity of the proteins designed to package it
> within
> a bacterial cell. I’m happy to expand on that if
> anyone is really interested. I also volunteeer at
> the
> Denver Nature and Science museum in thier new (10
> month old) Space Odyssey exhibit: an interactive
> setting where we present all ascpects of Space
> Science
> and exploration to the general public, and have
> immense fun in doing so.
>
> As far as the 4D cube goes, it seemed the next
> logical
> step for me. I have loved the cube (the
> ‘traditional’
> 3d version!) since it appeared (can you believe its
> been over 20 years ago??) and have the 2x2, 3x3(!),
> 4x4 and 5x5 versions displayed in our bedroom. (Has
> ayone ever come across a 6x6 btw?) This is part of a
> deeper love I have for recreational mathematics and
> mathematical games and puzzles. I grew up devouring
> Martin Gardner’s Scientific American columns and
> books, and also read ‘GEB’ (one of my all-time
> favourite books ever) and other works by Douglas
> Hoftstader just as avidly.
>
> Speaking of books, Ian Stewart has also written many
> excellent books on mathematics, and if any of you
> come
> across ‘Prime Obsession’ by John Derbyshire (it’s
> about the Riemann hypothesis) I cannot recommend it
> highly enough. It is superbly written: in my mind
> one
> of the best examples of this kind of
> ‘popularisation’
> book ever. Oh yes, and I also have a well-thumbed
> copy
> of Rudy Rucker’s The 4th Dimension, which helped me
> a
> great deal in dealing with the 4D cube.
>
> One of the biggest fustrations I have with the 4D
> version is that we are not 4-dimensional, and cannot
> see it in its ‘true’ undistorted form. (Wouldn’t it
> look incredibly beautiful?). Still, I think the web
> site is a wonderful simulation and a great
> achievement, so thank-you Don, Melinda and Jay :)
>
> Finally, I also love to see ‘patterns’ in numbers,
> and
> although this is akin to numerology I hasten to add
> that I am not a numerologist in any kind of
> ‘pseudo-science’ sense: I just find this kind of
> thing
> amusing. I was delighted to note, for example, that
> the Hall of Fame now contains as many members as
> there
> are hours in the day; as this links to clocks and
> other time-pieces: collecting them is another hobby
> of
> mine.
>
> OK, so that is more than a ‘few’ lines so I’ll stop
> here. If you are still reading this than (a)
> thank-you
> and (b) I look forward to joining in the discussions
> here for as many weeks/months/years as there are
> fascinating subjects - mathematical or otherwise -
> to
> talk about. Quite a long time in other words….
>
>
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