Lovely. TJ ============================================ Tom Johnson - t...@jtjohnson.com Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) *NM Foundation for Open Government* <http://nmfog.org> *Check out It's The People's Data <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671>*
============================================ On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 2:27 PM Edward Angel <an...@cs.unm.edu> wrote: > I wrote the following for Reuben Hersh’s memorial. The story is from when > Reuben, Vera and I were in the same carpool to UNM. > > During one of our commutes, Reuben and I were sharing the back seat and > Reuben brought up the subject of quaternions. For the mathematician > quaternions, which are the extension of simple complex numbers from two to > three dimensions, have a long and interesting history. Their discovery took > a long time even though some of the best mathematicians worked the problem. > Nevertheless, they are both simple and elegant. Reuben, of course, loved > them for both the history and the mathematics and was going to talk about > them in his upcoming class. I mentioned that quaternions are used > extensively in computer graphics (any student who takes a class in computer > graphics knows about them), animation (for designing camera paths), > aerospace (for head mounted displays) and by NASA (in rocket control > systems). Reuben was amazed. His response was “Someone actually uses > them!?” When we got to Albuquerque, Reuben, still in a state of amazement, > dragged me to his class, put me in front, and his introduction was “this > guy is going to tell you how people actually use quaternions.” He then sat > in the back, thoroughly enjoying my impromptu lecture. > > Ed > > _______________________ > > Ed Angel > > Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory > (ARTS Lab) > Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico > > 1017 Sierra Pinon > Santa Fe, NM 87501 > 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu > 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel > > On Sep 7, 2020, at 2:17 PM, Tom Johnson <t...@jtjohnson.com> wrote: > > The 19th-century discovery of numbers called “quaternions” gave > mathematicians a way to describe rotations in space, forever changing > physics and math. > > > https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-strange-numbers-that-birthed-modern-algebra-20180906/?fbclid=IwAR32bY8dnkg_hCYImiFlJgJL3g_r1CR9Eos4V_YEPcb7bvYJWlTe-8-83fY > > > TJ > > ============================================ > Tom Johnson - t...@jtjohnson.com > Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA > 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) > *NM Foundation for Open Government* <http://nmfog.org/> > *Check out It's The People's Data > <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671>* > > ============================================ > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >
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