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Escher and Elliptic Curves

Posted by michael on from the fill-in-the-blanks dept.

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."

5 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Mirror picture by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey! It's the same pic!

    Here's the real _mirror_ picture.

    --
    ^_^
  2. Those Escher links drive me krazy! by wichtolosaurus · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

  3. Here's another using psychic factorization by N8F8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Escher psychic factorization.

    --
    "God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
  4. White space by stere0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Why is the spot blank there, he wondered, and what should go in it?

    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
  5. It Says: This space by maxume · · Score: 5, Funny

    intentionally left blank.

    Sorry, back to bed with me.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.