> But is it mathematics? And is it beautiful mathematics?
(deletion)
> That the sphere carvings were beautiful in the good sense of
> concretely embodying the solution to a brain puzzle. (Re: the silliness
> of finding fractal graphics, etc., "beautiful" when one just beholds
> them with no clue to the underlying mathematics; that's a kind of
> irrelevant and stupid beauty; in contrast with viewing in terms of the
> mathematics behind them.
I don't think I agree with this last remark. There is a different
kind of beauty in fractals if one knows some mathematics, but I don't
think that finding something beautiful without "viewing in terms of
the mathematics behind them" is silly (even if I myself don't find
fractals aesthetically attractive). Is it silly to find a Bach fugue
beautiful if one hasn't studied musical theory? Is it silly to find
a landscape beautiful if one doesn't understand the geological
processes that created it? Or to find beauty in random marks on an
old wall? Does one have to be a physiologist to find a human being
beautiful?
Tony
Tony Mann
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences,
Maritime Greenwich University Campus, 30 Park Row,
Greenwich, London SE10 9LS
Tel: +(44) (0)20 8331 8709
Fax: +(44) (0)20 8331 8665
Email: A.Mann@gre.ac.uk
Web site http://www.gre.ac.uk/~A.Mann