Re: Spheres vs. Triodes

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Original poster: "Dr. Resonance" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com> 


Another great mathematics book for the average technical reader is:

Mathematics: The Science of Patterns     by Keith Devlin.

A nice romp through basic calculus, topology, logic, linear algebra,
counting theory, and other topics without getting too crazy with math.  It's
an excellent Christmas present for young science oriented boys and girls.
One of the best basic books on math I've ever read --- they actually keep it
interesting!

Dr. Resonance

 >
 >  > elliptic curve theory is one of the most beautiful
 >  > chapters in mathematics.
 >
 > Beauty and depth, absolutely!   If you fancy a good feast
 > on modular functions and modern physics, have a read about
 > "Monstrous Moonshine" - spine tinglingly nice stuff.  One
 > day I want to write about this subject.
 >
 >  > Your interest in elliptic curve theory must stem from
 >  > cryptography.
 >
 > No, definately not!   I love the books by Silverman, Knapp,
 > and Cassels.  But you can keep the crypto stuff - that's when
 > it gets dull!
 >
 > Elliptic integrals do seem to crop up a lot in our discussions
 > don't they!  This is because we often want to know the field
 > (E or B) at some test point due to a circular ring of charge or
 > current.  When viewed from the test point, the source ring
 > looks like an ellipse.  Thus we end up doing lots of integrals
 > around ellipses.  Not that elliptic integrals have a great deal
 > to do with elliptic curves, beyond the fact that the latter was
 > invented when somebody wanted to compute distance along an
 > ellipse, but I couldn't resist mentioning it because it is such
 > a very, very nice subject.
 > --
 > Paul Nicholson