Slashdot Mirror
Escher and Elliptic Curves
melquiades writes "Mathematician Hendrik Lenstra was struck by the blank spot in M. C. Escher's Print Gallery . Why is the spot blank there, he wondered, and what should go in it? Although Escher, who had only a high-school mathematics background, drew the picture by brilliant and methodical intuition, the mathematical machinery underlying the image turned out to be elliptic curves (which come up in factorization, cryptography, and the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem). Lenstra and his colleagues were able to generate several breathtaking possible completions for the missing space. Read the story at the ever-registration-required NYT."
Hey! It's the same pic!
Here's the real _mirror_ picture.
^_^
I have been watching the animation full screen on repeat for 15 minutes.
I now have a splitting headache and am dizzy and nauseous.
I tried to follow the link, but it actually sent my browser to the page I visited before.
That's impossible. Wait.... if water can flow upwards..... damn Escher!
Escher psychic factorization.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
> No one reallly knows except Escher, who's
> unlikely this late in the game the disclose it
> (ie. he's passed on).
Hey, it never hurts to ask. I lit a candle. Now, everybody hold hands, close your eye's and concentrate.
having downloaded a few loops (they'll make great screensavers), i'm now torn between two equal desires: part of me wants to research the proof of fermat's last theoren, while another part of me wants to put on some hendrix, drop some acid and stare at an endless escher loop for a few days
i thought, therefore i was...
You mirrored it perfectly! Down to the Slashdot effect ;-)
The white space is there 'cause the server's slashdotted, Sir. Escher's painting should go in it.
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
intentionally left blank.
Sorry, back to bed with me.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.