High-level math can seem esoteric to those of us who can't tell the difference between an asymptote and a hole in graph. So in honor of Mathematics Awareness Month in April, we at Stanford tip our hat to three folks who are using math in interesting ways from the everyday to the out-of-this-world.
A professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Portland, Aziz İnan, MS '80, PhD '83, sees mathematical patterns in the everyday. "I play with ages, dates, ID numbers, building numbers, ZIP code numbers, everything," says İnan. Thanks to his sharp eye, the nation was alerted to a special date, January 2, 2010 (01022010), one of just 12 palindrome dates in the American calendar system this century. The next one will be on November 2, 2011 (11022011).
A postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas-Austin, Henry Segerman, PhD '07, gives mathematical concepts form in art. From "autologlyphs" (self-referential images) to intricate space-filling curves, his creations incorporate topology, geometry and wordplay. Inspired by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein's short story about a buoyantly eccentric architect "—And He Built A Crooked House," Segerman created Hypercube House, a virtual 4D tesseract home design in which walking straight through four doorways brings you back to where you started.
Attempts to broadcast our existence to the universe have typically lacked a systematic effort to ensure that alien observers could understand the transmission. Physics graduate student Rachel Reddick and Caltech collaborator Michael Busch have devised a new code they believe will increase the odds that ET gets the message. First, they used combinations of four numeric symbols (0,1,2,3) to represent arithmetic functions and variables (01000001 stands for "="; 31000002 for "∏"). Then they defined physical constants, like the proton-to-electron mass ratio, presumed to be cosmic common knowledge. Finally, they tested the code to make sure that intelligent life forms (i.e., Caltech undergrads) could figure it out and made it redundant to compensate for information lost in transit.
