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Zero

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Ideas & Questions

Published: 12 January 2011

Hits: 1965

Now it seems like a simple enough thing, the invention of or discovery of zero. And if you're me, where the sum of your bank account/groceries/life savings/investments/ is nil, then it's a logical enough extension to assign it a value. But really - think about it - that point where all quantities become equal - where you can compare all things - for zero apples is indeed equal to zero oranges, and think of how much our current number systems, computing, banking - depend upon the number zero, and maybe you'll realize that it's not such a small discovery. Or invention - (another post - are numbers and their inherent laws invented or discovered?). But as my mind certainly isn't up to fathoming the intricacies and nuances of such accounting, here are a few sites to lead your thinking on:

"Without the notion of zero, the descriptive and prescriptive modeling processes in commerce, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and industry would have been unthinkable."

      - Professor Hossein Arsham  

Link: Wikipedia on the Number Zero

Link: Zero Saga

NIghtwatching - Peter Greenaway

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Film

Published: 10 January 2011

Hits: 1975

A downloaded discovery (and he has more films that I'm not aware of and so will be on the Greenaway kick for a while) - "Nightwatching". It takes the premise that Rembrandt inserted clues that would identify a murderer in his famous Night Watch - and the entire film - par for Greenaway, reflects Rembrandt's use of darkness and light. Now reviews for this are mixed - and for the most part unkind - and Greenaway is not a director you would want to walk in on accidentally. But if you see it, knowing his previous work and style and expecting the density of ideas, the graphic sexuality, the rich, sumptuous imagery, then you probably won't be disappointed.

 

The Circle

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Ideas & Questions

Published: 10 January 2011

Hits: 2157

Consider the circle. In it are embodied a multiplicity of ideas and questions - emblematic of perfection, (think of the Halo), of completeness, the perfect 2 dimensional shape (and in 3 dimensions the Sphere, but arguable the Sphere stems from the circle and so we'll limit ourselves here). There is no way to accurately - precisely - calculate it's area - PI being only an approximation, an irrational number, yet it's appearance belies it's complexity.

Think of a circle in motion, rotating around a central axis. An infinitely large circle - at it's center - absolute center, there is a point of absolute rest - no motion whatsoever. And then it's diameter, drawn far enough out, vastly exceeding the speed of light and as a consequence going back through time.

Or if this is too much consider that there's no simple way - in fraction or decimal - to express PI. There therefore can be no circle whose area is a whole number - by definition it will always involve some uncertainty or remainder.

Or consider some of the open questions about PI, reprinted here from Pi History:

1. Does each of the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 each occur infinitely often in π?
2. Brouwer's question: In the decimal expansion of π, is there a place where a thousand consecutive digits are all zero?
3. Is π simply normal to base 10? That is does every digit appear equally often in its decimal expansion in an asymptotic sense?
4. Is π normal to base 10? That is does every block of digits of a given length appear equally often in its decimal expansion in an asymptotic sense?

There are more. For something that embodies - visually at least - perfection - it certainly raises any number of questions. 

Links: Wiki on the Circle & Squaring the circle