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Ruler and compass construction of a heart
2023-02-14
My take on the parametric heart shape concept. A: 90 B: 90 There are many ways to use math to define a heart curve. The second one on that page, a sextic algebraic equation, $$(x^2+y^2-1)^3 + x^2y^3 = 0$$, strikes me as one of the most elegant, but it’s not very… adjustable. Rather than using a single polar/parametric/algebraic equation to define a curve, I imagined a different approach: a heart shape composed only of two circular arcs and two straight line segments.…
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Exponentials
2021-02-01
An exponentially increasing blog post. …
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Why Benford's Law is Obvious
2020-11-28
Benford’s Law states that in many naturally occurring collections of numbers, the leading digit is likely to be small. I love math factoids like this, and I remember how deeply unintuitive this seemed when I first learned it. Now, I find myself looking for a way to explain how intuitive it really is. …
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Hanging cables
2018-11-27
A hanging cable takes the shape of a catenary, a suspension bridge cable is a parabola. What’s the connection between these? …
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A webgl shader experiment
2018-01-11
How to create real fast demo animations with webgl. [EPILEPSY WARNING] …
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Dirichlet Integral
2010-03-17
The Dirichlet integral can be evaluated with a neat trick. This post is nothing special, just a record of my own process of understanding how it works. …
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Bell Curve Integral
2010-02-09
Evaluating this integral requires using two nonstandard tricks (i.e. things not taught in calc 1). …