Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of Geology
An exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.
more…
Tau.Neutrino said:
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of GeologyAn exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.
more…
“How many facets do each of these gravel pieces have? What if I told you that the number was always somewhere around six?”
We’ve had a different answer to this on the forum before.
“it came titled like a particularly esoteric Harry Potter novel: Plato’s Cube and the Natural Geometry of Fragmentation.”
“might also help with problems like understanding erosion from cracked cliff faces, or preventing hazardous rock slides”
Not really. I’ve studied this in the civil engineering course. Rocks on the scale of cliff faces are not isotropic, they have a preferred one of two planes of weakness.
“Make a random slice”
See paper “probability and ambiguity”. You literally can’t say “random slice” in a non-ambiguous way.
“if an answer to the same problem already existed, it would be locked in an inscrutable volume by the German mathematicians Wolfgang Weil and Rolf Schneider, an 80-year-old titan in the field of geometry. Domokos is a professional mathematician, but even he found the text daunting. I found someone who was willing to read that part of the book for me and translate it back into human language,”
LOL. I know exactly what he is talking about!
“this full swath was fairly easy to find in two dimensions”
No. It’s only recently (the 1990s?) that the complete set of tessellating polyhedra has been found in 2-D.
This is the sort of work that is most easily done by numerical methods – or even easier by crushing rocks.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of GeologyAn exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.
more…
I’ll have to read this later.
At the moment I suspect that’s it’s just scientists doing their usual science thing when looking at complex systems.
i.e. coming up with some nice simplifications that partially explain what is going on, but in the process completely missing the bleeding point.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of GeologyAn exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.
more…
I’ll have to read this later.
At the moment I suspect that’s it’s just scientists doing their usual science thing when looking at complex systems.
i.e. coming up with some nice simplifications that partially explain what is going on, but in the process completely missing the bleeding point.
Where is that place?
re: Bleeding Point.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of GeologyAn exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.
more…
I’ll have to read this later.
At the moment I suspect that’s it’s just scientists doing their usual science thing when looking at complex systems.
i.e. coming up with some nice simplifications that partially explain what is going on, but in the process completely missing the bleeding point.
Pretty much.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of GeologyAn exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.
more…
I’ll have to read this later.
At the moment I suspect that’s it’s just scientists doing their usual science thing when looking at complex systems.
i.e. coming up with some nice simplifications that partially explain what is going on, but in the process completely missing the bleeding point.
I think that’s what I said.