View Full Version : The Mathematics of Crochet... Or The Crochet of Mathematics?


Hecate
09-04-2006, 19:07
Here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4099615.stm) is what mathematicians get up to in their spare time. And you thought academics were dull... :D

And here (http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec04/lorenz/) is another article about the same story. Well I found it interesting anyway...

Phanerothyme
09-04-2006, 19:32
Well I'm more of an appreciator of Ed Lorenz (and Konrad, but that's another thread) than of crochet, but that is impressive.

I bet you could crochet a wicked Sierpinski Gasket too.

Hecate
09-04-2006, 20:03
Well I'm more of an appreciator of Ed Lorenz (and Konrad, but that's another thread) than of crochet, but that is impressive.

I bet you could crochet a wicked Sierpinski Gasket too.
Here (http://www.enm.bris.ac.uk/anm/preprints/2004r03.pdf) is a link to the pdf of the original paper. The maths isn't really my area, but the crochet instructions look pretty good...

lisaH
09-04-2006, 20:21
Wow that is rather lovely - Id definitely have to learn to crochet for that:D A Happy Hooker review will come - soon I promise;)

LisaH xxx

Hecate
09-04-2006, 20:49
...A Happy Hooker review will come - soon I promise;)

LisaH xxx
I now have that in writing, so there's no escape... :D .

Hecate
14-04-2006, 15:47
It seems like crochet is the mathematician's favourite hobby. Here (http://theiff.org/oexhibits/oe1e.html) is how a research group at Cornell University have used crochet to make models of hyperbolic space (which, I'm reliably informed, is "very, very complicated maths" :suspect: ).

Titian
14-04-2006, 16:24
It seems like crochet is the mathematician's favourite hobby. Here (http://theiff.org/oexhibits/oe1e.html) how a research group at Cornell University have used crochet to make models of hyperbolic space (which, I'm reliably informed, is "very, very complicated maths" :suspect: ).

Now see, they have just gone and ruined it with the bad embroidery :hihi:

I don't know about mathematics but sometimes circular knitting can end up like Biology (http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/general_info/images/fireradsafety5.jpg)

Hecate
14-04-2006, 17:09
Now see, they have just gone and ruined it with the bad embroidery :hihi:
I'll have you know that those are geodesics (or something)... But you're right, one of my cats could have done a better job of the stitching, and they don't even have thumbs :hihi: .

I don't know about mathematics but sometimes circular knitting can end up like Biology (http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/general_info/images/fireradsafety5.jpg)
To keep with the maths theme, my first attempt at circular knitting ended up like a Moebius strip (http://www.scifun.ed.ac.uk/card/images/right/moebius.jpg). But talking of biology, this (http://www.twosheep.com/helix/) scarf appeals to my inner biologist...

lisaH
14-04-2006, 19:57
Not crochet, but what do you think of this one then? http://www.math.gatech.edu/~berglund/OneSided/KBHat.pdf

LisaH xxx

Hecate
14-04-2006, 20:15
That's really quite.... odd. It's one of those one-sided shape things isn't it? I'm sure I've come across the website of the bloke who designs those things. Not sure I'd actually want to put it on my head though. :hihi:

Draggletail
30-04-2006, 01:14
But talking of biology, this (http://www.twosheep.com/helix/) scarf appeals to my inner biologist...
If I might just interject .... that guy isn't wearing the scarf.
The scarf is wearing him :D

Hecate
30-04-2006, 11:27
If I might just interject .... that guy isn't wearing the scarf.
The scarf is wearing him :D
It is rather. I suspect he looks uncomfortable though because he's just noticed that the designer has mistaken her purines for her pyrimidines in the pattern. Biologists, eh?