Why, you ask, would we give our unifying website such an abstract name?
Well, aside from the beauty of extremely cool ideas. I had also been getting my brain warped by a book on symmetry–in physics, music, art, and divers other fields you wouldn’t think were so easily related, called “The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved, How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry, ” by Mario Livio.
Not only is the title impressively steampunk in nature, the guy is trying to stretch my brain like a rubber band. I haven’t even finished it yet. In merely the first chapter it describes Mozart covering the walls of the house (all of them) with math formula, and the motion of snakes as leaving a particular kind of trace called “glide symmetry.”
My fingers persist in typing it as “Qualtion” instead of “Equation.” I assume there’s a reason. There usually is…
At any rate, this caused me to go off on one of those erratic Leonard of Quirm moments. Who, you say? An imaginary genius, as in imaginary numbers, still can have impact. If you don’t know fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, be warned that the War Librarian, Emma, will quote him at length at the drop of a Librarian’s banana. Erm, so to speak. (Reading the similar book “Godel, Escher, and Bach” also caused me to spalt off with little irregular chips of idea-flint for days. Just don’t stand too close, or you’ll lose an eye.)
Where, you may ask, did this occur? Over here, on lj,there is a really nice chunk of the story.
https://greenjudy.livejournal.com/31850.html
Down among the comments, I posted the following suggestion for a name:
https://greenjudy.livejournal.com/31850.html?thread=252522#t252522
I said:
Tonight the idea of something about the intersection of mathematical symmetry, music, archetypal imagery (which includes resin doll characterizations) and doing the time warp are appealing.
A friend reminds me that “the principle of moments” is important in symmetry for both physical items like balance beams, teeter-totters, and math such as statistical means.
Wikipedia is a little confusing on this. As best I read it, the term is mainly concerned with where the balancing point is, which allows all kinds of translations into other terms in physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_moments
They also note:
History
The principle of moments is derived from Archimedes’ discovery of the operating principle of the lever.[citation needed] In the lever one applies a force (in his day most often human muscle), to an arm beam of some sort. Archimedes noted that the amount of force applied to the object, the moment of force, is defined as M = rF, where F is the applied force, and r is the distance from the applied force to object.
See also
* Torque
Amusingly enough, also, Ropbert Plant had an album called that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Principle_of_Moments
My friend also mentioned “degrees of freedom” are important in stastistical measures or a game of tictactoe, such as a system to note how many squares in a table have to be determined before all the rest of the system is determined.
To which greenjudy commented:
(One of my favorite albums, that…the video for “Big Log” is worth a look.)
I like the principle of moments (because of my love for Robert Plant, frankly)
Another thought – how about The Caves of Altamira?
Also kiyakotari commented:
I really like The Principle of Moments, playing as it does on the premise of the coincidental (and non) intersections of time and place that allow all of these interactions to actually happen.
Caves of Altamira is more enigmatic, but also somehow appealing.
I think we got a comment from dharma_slut on it elsewhere–let me know and I’ll try to figure out how to edit to include!