Project Proposal

What if we saw the world as math? Inspired by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVJyaJ5TNpc

I think it would be pretty fun to make art inspired by calculus, or, to take it a step further, displaying calculus directly. For example, I read somewhere that rainbows involve quite a bit of calculus concepts. Perhaps our project can simply show what has been pointed out to us since the beginning of this year: calculus in nature. This includes organic curves of rocks, rainbows, fractals, even weather patterns. It sounds like a simple project, but it gives us a lot of room for creativity.

Book of Numbers Chapter 1 QQC

Quote: "If you break one egg, you will break an egg." And every other superstition that was listed.

Question: Who exactly made these up and who even believes these superstitions?

Comment: I personally have never heard even one of these superstitions. I mean, I'm not that much of a superstitious person, but I can definitely list a few that don't make sense but were quite infamous back in grade school. For example: "Step on a crack, break you're mama's back" or that one about having bad luck if you spill salt (the remedy is to throw some of the spilled salt over your shoulder).

Also, just as a side note... the number one never seemed so complex until I read through this chapter.

Chapter 0.000000001 QQC

Quote: "The Chinese abacus could also represent numbers as small as 0.01. The speed at which a trained abacus user can calculate sums is remarkable, and proficient users are even able to visualize the movement of the beads in their heads in order to achieve astonishing feats of mental arithmetic."

Question: How does it work? How does one train on it?

Comments: I've of course seen these before, and even played with them temporarily out of curiosity when I was younger, but never fully understood them. I think I understand them more now, and I wonder if using these little devices would help improve my mental math skills. Honestly, it seems like using them would be pretty fun. I might have to experiment with one and find out if this hands-on math technique could help me be more enthusiastic about my math skills. This is a large idea, I know, but maybe it could take me one small step closer to this goal.

Book of Numbers Chapter 0 QQC

Quote: Many thousands of years ago, when people didn't speak many words, before writing was invented, before there was money, before there were even words to describe numbers, people knew numbers. Although we had no names for them, we used them. We couldn't think about them or draw them.

Question: Numbers without symbols? What would the world be like if we didn't have numbers or time?

Comment: This has been a very curious thought to me since I entered high school. I just can't bring myself to imagine numbers without some sort of representation (for example, the symbol, or two rocks). I mean, of course I understand what numbers are, to an extent, but then it's strange to think about what they are in the universe. It's hard for me to explain, but it's quite interesting to think about. I mean, humans started out with knowing next to nothing, and then we started developing the idea of numbers and using them for counting, trading, and so on. And then somehow, through hundreds of thousands of steps, we went from counting to arithmetic. Numbers are, essentially, things humans made up, aren't they? So it would be easier for us to make sense of the world? For example, time is a measurement we made up as well (when it comes to seconds and hours).