#numbertheory

"DMT_106," digital + acrylic, July 16, 2024, Reginald Brooks

#interestingfacts 90

Pythagoras, a Greek mathematician and philosopher, lived around 570-495 BCE. While much of his life is shrouded in mystery and legend, here are five lesser-known or potentially rare facts about Pythagoras:

Secretive Cult-Like Community: Pythagoras founded a secretive and exclusive community in Croton, Italy, known as the Pythagorean Brotherhood. The members of this community were bound by strict rules, including a vow of silence and a communal way of life. The group was not only interested in mathematics but also philosophy, mysticism, and religious practices.

Numerical Mysticism: Pythagoras and his followers believed in the mystical significance of numbers. They thought that numbers held inherent qualities and mystical properties. For example, they associated odd numbers with masculinity and even numbers with femininity. The number 10 was particularly significant and seen as a perfect and divine number.

Pythagorean Theorem was known before Pythagoras: While Pythagoras is credited with the famous Pythagorean Theorem, which relates the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle, evidence suggests that the theorem was known to the Babylonians and Indians before Pythagoras. Pythagoras, however, is often credited with its formal proof and popularization in ancient Greece.

Vegetarianism and Taboos: Pythagoras and his followers were known for their strict dietary restrictions. They practiced vegetarianism, believing that it was essential for purifying the soul. They also had various food-related taboos, such as avoiding beans, possibly due to their belief in the impurity associated with certain legumes.

It's December 22nd, 🧮 National Mathematics Day in India. On this day in 1887, the brilliant mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in Erode, Tamil Nadu. Ramanujan was responsible for advances in number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems until then considered unsolvable. Schools and universities throughout India celebrate his birthday now with math contests, games, demonstrations, and other educational events. In 2017, the day’s significance was enhanced by the opening of the Ramanujan Math Park in Kuppam, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.

Ramunajan's genius was obvious from childhood. By the age of 12, he had mastered trigonometry and developed many of his own theorems. Ramanujan’s peers at the time said they rarely understood him and stood in respectful awe of him, but his ideas were too novel for the leading mathematicians in India to be bothered with.

In 1913, when Ramanujan was 25, British mathematician G.H. Hardy became enamored with his theorems and got him into Cambridge University. Ramanujan thrived in Britain and was soon elected to be a member of the London Mathematical Society. In 1918, at the age of 30, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society – one of the youngest persons to ever achieve this esteemed position.

Ramanujan returned to India in 1919 because the food in Britain didn't agree with him. His health continued to deteriorate, and he died in 1920 at the tender age of 32. His achievements in mathematics, however, continue to live on and grow ever larger. His notebooks of unpublished material are a source of new ideas to this day. Of his thousands of theorems, all but a dozen or so have by now been proven correct. A century after his death, researchers are still discovering that mere comments in his writings about "simple properties" and "similar outputs" were themselves profound and subtle number theory results.

"DMT_89," digital + acrylic, June 29, 2024, Reginald Brooks

"Janometry: 23--Butterfly Fractal Resonance," digital, 2024, Reginald Brooks

Homage to Bob Dylan: "More Blood, More Tracks," The Bootleg Series, Vol 14

“Butterfly Fractal Sequence-62,” acrylic on Dura Lar, 25” x 40”, 2023, Reginald Brooks

Butterfly Fractal 1 (BF1): original, base fractal based on the Exponential Power of 2.

Butterfly Fractal 2 (BF2): original, base fractal based on the Exponential Power of 2, but with the Running Sums (R∑) emphasized.

Butterfly Fractal 3 (BF3): based on cubing the exponents.

Butterfly Fractal 4 (BF4): the 10 fundamental parameters of every Mersenne Prime Square (MPS) are revealed by SAME fractal-pattern of BF1, only using the x, y and z values of a given MPS.