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Mathematician Solves a Big One After 140 Years

Posted by kdawson on from the works-with-holes dept.

TaeKwonDood notes that ScientificBlogging.com has just written about a development in applied math that was published last year. "The Schwarz-Christoffel transformation is an elegant application of conformal mapping to make complex problems faster to solve. But it didn't do well with irregular geometries or holes, so it simplified too much for a lot of modern-day mechanical engineering applications. 140 years after Schwarz and Christoffel's work, a professor at Imperial College London has generalized the equation. MatLab users rejoice!"

11 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That guy must be pretty old

    1. Re:wow by nwf · · Score: 3, Funny

      But can you prove it? There's got to be a limit somewhere here...

      --
      I don't know, but it works for me.
  2. Design by Bananatree3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    of course pilots don't need to know the math behind why their plane works. I sure hope the designers of the planes knew their math! Without them the planes wouldn't work.

    1. Re:Design by h4rm0ny · · Score: 4, Funny

      Designing a 777 or the new 7E7 off pure experimentation would take insanely more amounts of time and money.

      Not to mention pilots.
      --

      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
  3. I solved a big one this morning too by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I give credit to all the bran I've been eating lately.

    1. Re:I solved a big one this morning too by sakusha · · Score: 4, Funny

      You could have worked it out with a pencil.

    2. Re:I solved a big one this morning too by WgT2 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is there no limit to potty-humor?

      Why must it be integrated into our lives so often?

  4. High school math tests by syousef · · Score: 2, Funny

    I knew I could have scored better if there were no time limit!

    Miss, I'd like 140 years to finish my paper!

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  5. Re:Article text by jo42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    a) Make the square hole bigger, or, b) Put the round peg in a lathe and turn it down so that it fits in said hole.

  6. Re:Math Forfront by SQLGuru · · Score: 2, Funny

    What does Gordon Sumner's http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001776/ theories have to do with anything?

    Layne

  7. Re:Math Forfront by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Funny

    (He did develop some interesting techniques for calculating the area under a curve, that were similar in some regards to integral calculus, but only in the sense that a longbow is similar to a modern rifle. Incredible for its time, beautifully elegant, but I know which I'd rather be using in a life-or-death situation.) What the fuck are you doing that you'd be in a life-or-death situation that depends on integral calculus?

    Dude, you need new friends...