h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

what about applying the Fibonaci´s Golden ratio to compose a picture?

here they say how:
http://mathdude.quickanddirtytips.com/use-the-golden-ratio-to-take-better-pictures.aspx

What about drawing what Maths does in Nature:

http://www.gran-angular.net/fractales-y-series-de-fibonacci-en-la-naturaleza/2008/09/11/

I´ve just found this wonder:

http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop

I´m not sure if the page charges different to me, but scroll down until you get at Algorithmic Botany,
It can be downloaded !!!

THe Algorithmic beauty of plants... that´s the book I mean...
jaysus, I was so excited with the finding!

Wowzum! Zowzum! This is the Happy Christmas of math-beauty! The what? . The Feliz Navidad of Algorithmic Botany, the Fractales y Series de Fibonacci en la Naturaleza. And see the green lava lamp at the top of that site? Yes!! We have lava lamp. A pink one. That has to be the essence of maths also. Huh? Like the ever changing abstract shapes and the geometric beauty of the structure.

Incredible breakthroughs in the Hootoo School of Inspired Maths project. . Thankyou Director.

So ... I hope you are going to write this up, Maria? Some inspired writings for the project. Your insights, your understanding of algorithmic botany, the philosophy, the vision, the inspiration? I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope.

This project could have so many aspects from so many minds! All kinds of writings and images and visions. I am very excited about it.

I guess it might be ongoing. I am yet to evolve, , but I caught the train of thought today, with my camera, even though it was a mistake.

I get so nervous about not being clever enough to do projects, I'm all sweat sweat pace pace blush blush . till I give up trying too hard, then I am visited by a happening, and the Creative Spirit has its way, because I allow myself to play. heyhey.

So my little perspex protractor was on the wooden kitchen table. I decided to take a photo of it, just because I liked the shape of it. Then I noticed that the bendy lines, the grains and textures of the wood were sort of interacting with it, they were a contrast. The angular and the organic. Wow. The photo looks like a protractor mushroom! ..... I think it might be good for the project. Have to put into computer, and if it comes out OK I will email to the Ed.

Now I am crazy about the symbiotic relationship between the geometric and the organic, the beauty of balance. Yes! Yes! There must be an equation for it. I shall write one, when I have checked into the Al-jebr Hotel. huh??? Will tell you more about the Al-jebr Hotel. Uh oh.

So inspired, hardly started, but have to go eat beans.

Speak soon!!!!!

Cactus Cafetina

My dear Catus Cafetina,

I wish I could write something about this...

My knowledge is very superficial. It´s the fascination, the curiosity for everything related to Nature that has made me pay attention to these jewls of Maths.
But I feel like a magpie, a dilettante magpie if you want. I´ve been collecting these brilliant objects and I still do, just like that one of Algorithmic Botany. Just found when I was looking for something else. I´ve had a look at it and you really need a deep knowledge of Maths and be into virtual graphic representation of botanical models ( never heard of it before) to make any sense out of it. So, I was a magpie who saw something nice shining, took it and brought here to show it to friends.

The Golden Ratio, the Fractals… those are also recent pieces of my collection of fascinating objects of knowledge. .. but, I feel I´m far from getting deeper into all that. Maths is still for me something very dark, complex… even if I had the best teacher in the world, I´m not sure if my mind could cope with all that abstract sommersaults of the mind….

However, my collection and my love for all that has helped me to awaken the curiosity of children. Children won´t ask you for formulaes nor deeper abstract things, they remain fascinated and that´s all they need. Later, they can start to get into the labirynth of numbers, the mystical numbers, the perfect geometry, the wonders of Nature…

The subject of filosofía at university only was a year. The teacher reminded us the etymological meaning of the word: filo, friend, and sophia, knowledge. He wanted that we didn´t have that idea that humanities and sciences are separated fields of knowledge. It took roots in me , since I had been into sciences before literature and latin entered my life and changed my path of studies.

Mi querida amiga, you are a pizpireta girl, that´s why you feel also so fascinated with all that. I think I also keep inside me the same girl I was when I was ten years old. That´s fantastic, isn´t it?

Now, this video sums up a part of what we have been talking about: numbers and Nature:

http://youtu.be/kkGeOWYOFoA

I think that the music is very appropiate.

And these are some of the words that I read many years ago when I was studying filosofía at Granada and that made me change my attitude towards Maths.

'The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language... without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word'

Galileo.

Beautiful video, Maria, gracias!

Wowzum!!! Dizzyfizzy inspiration!!! Ah! At last I have time to return to my inspiration fix. Incredible. Completely incredible. Maria, you are a star of brightness. A zoom lense. A golden aura philospher. More! More! ...Any time you like ....

It's like ... it's like ... (very eloquent I am tonight) ... it's like .... you know how we are speaking of the wonder of a ten yr old, and how that wonder is still with us? well! it's like my inner version of that amazing video and these quotes and all these things of which we are speaking have been lurking in my veins all these years. Like it's in our veins, it must be. Or in our DNA. Which is maybe the same thing. ........

Must learn what DNA is. I think the pattern of it is also maths.

Return soon .......Need beans and ....... ....

Laters for and the protractor shroom picture (soon to be sent.... I hope) looks like it has been been etched from the rasping whispers of a thousand scruffy cracked spirit entites, who almost saw God, in fact I think they did see God, but something happened between the camera and the computer ......involving a trail of insects, and a map of a strange town far from here ...

PS

(Still hoping that further details of Peanut's weekend of illegal maths will appear in our project. I must know before I am very much older. The curiosity is so intense, I might break out in fictional speculation and itchy skin).

(returns to , beans, and wondering what DNA is.)

are you asking me to kiss and tell about my weekend of illegal maths for

I like the idea of fictional speculation, an exposé, would make much more interesting reading I'm sure

You should include the following snippets, like I am a single parent, ginger ( flame haired in red top speak),and that at the time I had a long standing relationship with the massive Sudoku in the Independent on Saturday, Saturday morning before the children got up was our special time together, Sudoku got dumped that weeked

Hah! Hah again!! Now I'm getting the details. Teehee. That's brilliant.

Leaving Sudoku

Chapter One

It's a masterpiece in the making......I can't write stories ... pace pace pace .....need a writer ... Peanut! don't leave me this way

(cue Thelma Houston/Don't Leave Me This Way soundtrack )

help! help! where's my friend mvp (minorvogonpoet), she could write this story .... so curious now I am shredding everything ... chew chew .... pace pace ...

Peanut, I insist you write up this story ....or someone does ....

Now listen up all ye, we had a deal with the Ed. yes? (the collaborative Ed with the briefcase ).

I've just sent him my scruffy math-shroom picture, for better or for worse. Ohmigod sounds like I married the Ed. Sorry Elektra.... erm... would I leave Sudoku for the Ed .......

Anyway, Ed is on about Ojibwe trickster gods..

And you folks are inspiring me with your inspirational inspirations, maths is creating strange scratchy sonic waves in my DNA ....

Don't leave me this way .... I can't survive

I am enjoying the flights of fancy, making a story of it is beyond me

besides kiss and tell, not really me

I'm not beyond feeding snippets to the media but they are not really meant for publication, I am the 'epitomy of discretion' me

please note that I deliberately made that mis spelling because I am in role I didn't just look it up and weave it into my story telling

Heheh, I get it luvvy. The weekend of illegal maths will remain a mysterious and beautiful poem to me .... which is the best really, I like poems and stories that end in a place of mystery, slightly shrouded.

And time moves on.....

Back to some long division then. . I just told a friend of mine that long-division has become my ultimate stress buster. She is very worried about me. .

I am making a stack of maths type photos right now. I found that the challenge of doing this recent piccie for got me addicted to making piccies again, so now I am addicted to doing scratchy arty things on my laptop in the middle of the night, which isn't good for mine eyes, but is doing wonders for my soul.

And, apart from a recent ongoing daydream, which seems to involve a packet of custard cream biscuits, and a poet named Ruben who has just checked into the al-jebr hotel, everything around here is totally and completely normal. .

(according to Wiki, the word algebra comes from the arabic, al-jebr, meaning reunion of broken parts.)

I am worried about Ruben, especially as he is a figment of my imagination, although I think he will be OK, if he remembers to do his long division. . . It's good that he likes custard creams. I do too. The walls of the al-jebr hotel are covered in equations, and maps, and scratchy drawings. Of course.

(heads off to design walls of the Algebra Hotel)

Cactus Cafetina

My dear friends, I´ve just finished writing this.

I´m not sure what it is. A transcription? feel free to change it, it´s a collective writing after all.

A87768751

heheheh. I love it Maria!

(gone all shy now, I get soooooo shy looking back on what I wrote).

(hides in wardrobe for 23 hrs, comes out again, eats some custard creams)

Our work fits nicely together eh? heheh. This is our first joint masterwork.

Apply here for the film rights. And for weekend courses of maths, illegal or otherwise. .

Splendid! Splendid! Thankyou!

Cactus Cafetina

Me alegra que te guste, I ´m happy you like it.



Do you want to change something, add, cut...? Please, tell me... It´s a collective writing.

I´m not sure if we can still send it to the Post . I think Friday is the last day... not sure.

Apply here for the film rights. And for weekend courses of maths, illegal or otherwise

and book now for the al-jebr hotel

Maria, this is brilliant!

Can we do it this way? We've already got a huge issue coming up on Monday, but I'd love to have this for 3 September. That will give youze guys a chance to comment. If it's okay, I'll steal it on Monday.

If you want to make any changes after then, just send an email to .

Hey! Yay Ed! Tis brilliant, eh? I love it! So happy it will be in !

And Maria, I think this work is great the way it is, apart from going reeeely shy about the bits I wrote. Teehee but you know me. I always want to edit myself because I am so shy, but I am amongst trusted friends here, so I am happy anyway!! Good to confront my insecurities before I am 108 yrs old. heheh.

And there's a good bar in the Hotel Al-Jedr. . I can sit in there with a slow gin , reading . I can take off my shoes and write equations on the insoles. I can adopt a small curly dog and tell it many things in ancient languages. I can .....

yes yes yes ok ok ok ......

Dmitri,

gracias



all around, courtesy of the Al-Jebra Hotel