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Not boring but there is absolutely nothing intelligent I can add to this.How about those Sabres?
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Not boring but there is absolutely nothing intelligent I can add to this.How about those Sabres?
* Okay, so maybe it would have to be an old picture...
And to think that based on the title of the thread I thought you were going to post a picture of a scantily-clad Sophia Loren, munching on sunflower seeds at the ballpark.
Nice post...I'm fascninated by mathematics, t'was what I studied in grad school. It shows that nature is way ahead of us all when it comes to efficiencies in and of design.
Enjoyed the post, thanks Mark.
*When I was in Term 3 at archi-torture school I stumbled upon this notion of perfect proportion and its mathematical basis. I was fascinated and began to delve into Vitruvius, Palladio et al, and the rules of the so-called classical architecture. I decided to apply some of this to my design project for that term. Well the response I received from my professors was essentially - who cares? What does this have to do with design? The closed-mindedness astounded me and it was at that point that I started to wonder what I was getting for my money. Anyway, I still think there's a lot to learn from the Romans, and the Greeks before them. Even if I never get to build a full-blown neo-classical structure, a little bit of it finds its way into every design.Viva Italia
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Mark,
Good for you! This is exactly what I mean when builders should learn about design - AND sometimes architects too Gerry! Lawrence asked why he should know any of this stuff and it comes down to Proportions, mass, line, proportions, light, movement, and proportions. Just a little tweaking of size, arrangement of windows and doors, rooflines, plans, etc can turn an ordinary place into someplace that is much more special. Sometimes indefinably different, but different and better all the same. This could help you stand out from from the pack, so it is well worth the minimal effort! You don't need to build a duplicate of a historic building, PRINCIPLES transcend time, plan and function.
For you reading pleasure try "The Old Way of Seeing", "The Golden Mean" (used to be out of print but try your library, by a Mr. Hunt), the works of Palladio and Vitruvius. Useful stuff, really!
I is amazing how many things that just seem "right" are based on pure geometry and mathematics. The golden mean is really quite common. Make a little golen rectangle and carry it around. Next time you see a particlarly nice facade or comfortable room, take out the card and see how often that little rectangle comes up, particularly combined with other "pure" geometric forms like squares, circles, and equalateral triangles.
*
If I'm not mistaken, one mile is about 1.61 kilometers.
Concidence ?????
*Someone correct me on this, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the metric system or was a division of the Earths measurement at the Equator????
*Lisa, I read "the Old Way of Seeing" some time ago.Unfortunately,(at least to me)todays consumers would rather have big,flashy,low maintanenance,disposable houses nstead of well proportioned,simple designed,high quality materials and livable neighborhoods.But we have already had this discussion haven't we?I mean is there really any way to put a 2 car garage door on the front facade of a suburban box and have it be well proportioned?Simplify,simplify,simplify...Stephen
*It's funny what I remember and what I forget...I'm not sure (forgot) but I think that one meter is one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator. Ten-thousand Km, etc.The bizarre thing that I remember is that the meter is officially defined off of an isotope of krypton. It's the equavalent of about 1,650,000 wavelengths of the orange-red isotope of Kr. Wasted braincells...
*tried one of those orange-red isotopes once.....tasted awfull!!!!Mongo,Have just changed from Netscape to IE5. In Netscape I could copy a site by right click, but don't seem to be able to do it with IE5. Any ideas?
*Change back to Netscape
*Facinating! I am reminded here of the mathematical theories involved in fractals. Quite a few years back, I actually counted the seeds for some experiment. I was simply astounded by the order exhibited in such a random fashion.BTW: Mark, when is an Italian a bloke?
*An Italian is a bloke when an Aussie is telling the story.....which reminds me...What is a bigamist?A large Italian fog.
*Mark,
Joseph FuscoView Image
*Marknautical mile is a direct division of the earth's surface 1 min. of arc of latitude or 1 min of arc of longitude at the equator. i.e. 1/60 of 1 deg. of lat. (or long. at equator)Scott
*thanks for the correction...
*MarkThanks for the i trivia. . . very interesting stuff.-pm
*What's the penalty for bigamy?Two wives.Ed.
*Mark,I failed math in school.I hated school.I don't even go for the reunions.I can't spit without a calculator.I envy you guys like you wouldn't believe.I see these guys figuring things with formulas that they learned in trig.I never took trig.I almost failed geometry.Just goes to show that you don't need a good background in math to be a carpenter, ( I hope I'm a good carpenter ) but man, had I known I'd end up a carpenter, I would have paid a lot more attention in school.Future carpenters take note: Stay in school and learn all the math you can. You can get by without it, as I have, but it will make your life in this profession much easier.Although we are professionals, I find that most people ended up here by chance. No one I ever met said when they were young, "By God I want to be a carpenter!".My stay in public school wasn't a complete waste...I am one bad ass guitar player. ( that's what I did instead of homework ) I find a lot of frustrated musicians in this field.Does anyone else here play?My attempt at college wasn't a total loss either....I met my wife there at NTSU. ( Now called the University of North Texas, in Denton Texas. ) We've been married for 23 years.Rock on.Ed. Williams
*What's an "inuendo"?An Italian suppository.
*mark,This is what I love about this business. Intelligent, articulate professionals discussing universal truths, whether it be human nature,consistency of work, or mathematical ratios. Goes a long way toward dispelling the 'buttcrack showing,tobacco spitting,lights on but nobody's home' image that we sometimes have to overcome. Proportions and spatial relationship of components are what sets a good design apart from a poor one. Like art it is sometimes easier to define as the "I know what I like" school of thought then it is to put down on paper mathematically. But by knowing the formulas,ratios, and series that have been discovered to be visually pleasing we don't have to reinvent the wheel each time. Thanks for the posting.
*Sign me 'Adrian, Master of the Stratocaster' (in my own mind, that is). Plan A was, become THE white blues guitarist of my generation, move to Austin. Now I'm just an enthusiastic fan. I worked in one shop where everyone was a musician, roadie, or soundman in their real lives. Good bunch.On the subject of proportion/nature, Wha! Provoking thoughts all over the place. In furniture design, I use the Golden mean and the Fibonacci series, but often it is only a starting point. Like any rule, sometimes it pays to break it. A piece of furniture (or trim detail, or building) based just on that proportion can look pretty bland, and smetimes ya just have to adjust it. The Fibonacci series is a great way to graduate drawers though.
*And the northern United States isi uppa uass-pm
*You guys kill me...
*I'm way behind with IE4.0, with which I can right click to copy. Sorry, but I don't know nuthin bout 5.0.Did you ever get those posts (as in posting pics) figured out?
*Hello Mongo,Yes, At least I think I got it figured....problem with resizing, now Petes got me beat how he attached a photo to his post without the attachment part.
*and a " specimen " is an Italian astronaut.
*
Some trivia for those of you interested in form and proportion. ( those who already know this please bear with me ).
Some of the most beautifull buildings and paintings in the world get a lot of their appeal from mathematics. They make use of rectangles based on proportion of height to width. You may have heard of this expressed as the " Golden Mean ".
Each rectangle has a proportion of 1 to 1.618033989.
If you divide a Golden Ratio rectangle into a square and another rectangle, the smaller rectangle repeats the same ratio.
If you continue to divide the smaller rectangle and then draw an arc through the squares you will end up with what is called a logarithmic spiral ( exactly the same spiral as the shell of a snail or chambered nautilus ).
So much for proportion. Now for famous Italians.
Around 1200 BC there lived a bloke by the name of Fibonacci. He is credited with discovering the " Fibonacci series".
He discovered that each number in a series 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 etc. is after the first two numbers, the sum of the previous two numbers.
So much for famous Italians. Now for the Sunflower seeds.
If you want to take the trouble and count the clockwise spirals of seeds on a sunflower ( they run both clockwise and anti-clockwise ) and compare them with the anti-clockwise count, the numbers will always be not only "Fibonacci series" numbers, but consecutive.The largest numbers recorded are 144 and 233.
So much for sunflowers. And now here's where the story really starts.
The numbers 144 and 233 are in the ratio of 1 to 1.61805. and 233 and its following Fibonacci number 377 are to the ratio of 1 to 1.6180257. Succesive ratios take us ever closer to , you guessed it...1 to 1.618033989, the Golden Ratio which we started with.
My apologies if you found this boring.
bump
Good call.SamT
Even a blind squirrel will pick up an acorn once in a while.
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
well done, rez -
but dang, that 'Old Way of Seeing' book is expensive....
"there's enough for everyone"
Paperbacks sometimes rule!
http://www.woodcentral.com/books/hale.shtml
be forgetting that $62 hardback version
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070630/mathtrek.asp
and it was 1200 AD, not BC