Day 19: Heart of Mathematics

• Last time: Moebius bands

• Today:
  • What did you think of the gallery in section 6.1? Mathematics or Art?

  • What are dynamic models?

  • What is the essential buzzword of section 6.2?

  • How many people will be on the earth in 2100?

  • Why are simple rules that result in complex phenomena important?
    • Some people doubt evolution, because they doubt that simple rules can result in the complexity we see around us.
    • If scientists can demonstrate that complex phenomena can arise from simple phenomena, then that argument holds less water.

  • The game of life: played on an infinite checkerboard. The rules are:
    1. A living square will remain alive in the next generation if exactly two or three of the adjoining eight squares are alive in this generation; otherwise, it will die.
    2. A dead square will come to life if exactly three of its adjoining eight squares are alive; otherwise, it will remain dead.
    • the website's version
    • I.12
    • Create your own creatures!
      • Can you think of one that will lead to extinction?
      • Can you think of one that will lead to a stable pattern?

• Next time: Section 6.5: Predetermined chaos

Links:

• www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/
• www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html
• www.radicaleye.com/lifepage/
• grid paper