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...but What is the Question?

posted by Fnord666 on Monday March 13 2017, @05:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the DNA-is-also-an-author dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Mathematician John Baez presents a delightful and beautifully illustrated version of the ultimate question... http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/42.html for which the answer is 42.

Hint -- it's 2D geometry. And maybe the mice should have been bargaining with Zaphod for his brain instead of for Arthur Dent's brain.

Lots more math & physics fun on his pages, I also enjoyed http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/rolling/

Original Submission

Added Wikipedia link to the text '42' to explain, for the uninitiated, the HHGttG reference. --Bytram
 
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday March 13 2017, @01:51PM (4 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday March 13 2017, @01:51PM (#478391) Homepage
    Baez is always a fantastic read. The only problem is that he'll start with something fun and simple to understand and then lead you down a trail where, by the time you're half way makes you think "that's nice, but I don't understand it" and by the end it's more like "help! I'm trapped in a maze of symbols and alien tech^H^Hrminology, let me out!"
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
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  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday March 13 2017, @04:26PM (2 children)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 13 2017, @04:26PM (#478479) Homepage Journal

    You could just read Baez for the Wowee Zowee emotional content. Just as you might attend a symphony without understanding every chord change and melodic variation.

    Doing this consistently over years gets you to the point that you can often see it's meaningful without understanding just what the meaning is. And you get a deeling for what is significant.

    That gives you a heads up if you were ever to really study any of this stuff in detail, for which you'd have to go to real textbooks. Which Baez would be happy to refer you to if you are serous about it.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday March 13 2017, @04:48PM (1 child)

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday March 13 2017, @04:48PM (#478496) Homepage
      I've known Baez's stuff for decades - "This Week's Findings in Mathematical Physics" (or somesuch) was a favourite read on sci.math before it became 99% kooks and trolls, every edition would be read from start to finish, and I loved them all no matter how far over my head they went.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @09:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @09:36PM (#479147)

        http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/TWF.html [ucr.edu]
        All the old columns are available for personal download. Baez is even updating them if he finds an error. And he requests readers to email him if they find an error.

  • (Score: 1) by Sourcery42 on Monday March 13 2017, @04:40PM

    by Sourcery42 (6400) on Monday March 13 2017, @04:40PM (#478490)

    We apologise for the inconvenience. ...sorry couldn't resist another Douglas Adams joke.