Squaring the Circle

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-82
Author(s):  
Ciaran McMorran

This chapter highlights the practical and metaphysical issues which James Joyce associates with the application of Euclidean geometry as a geo-meter (a measure of the Earth) in “Ithaca.” It demonstrates how the “mathematical catechism” of “Ithaca” geometrizes the visible world, translating natural phenomena into their ideal Euclidean equivalents. In a topographical context, it illustrates how variably curved surfaces undergo a process of rectification as they are mediated by the catechetical narrative, and how this leads to a confusion between maps and their territories. In light of the narrative’s conceptualization of Molly Bloom as both a human and a heavenly body, this chapter also examines the mythical notions which originate from the mathematical catechism’s conflation of geometric objects and the visible world. By evoking an incongruity between visual objects and their meters, it argues, Joyce explores the possible limits of squaring the circle, both topographically (in terms of projecting a curved natural surface onto a two-dimensional map, as in Mercator’s projection) and figuratively (in the sense that the irregularly curved features of the natural world are rectified as they are represented textually on a rectilinear page).

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Narayan Bahadur Magar

The sublimation or the deterioration of the Earth depends on how the humans act over the natural world. The Mahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit literary text, reveals a way to the modern human as to treat with the natural phenomena. The degraded environment of the present more or less depends on how the human takes the natural world. This paper uses the Mahabharata, an English translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli to analyze the text from ecological perspective. The researcher envisions the human relationship with the natural world in the epic through the concept of spiritual ecology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-766
Author(s):  
Lillian C. Woo

In the last fifty years, empirical evidence has shown that climate change and environmental degradation are largely the results of increased world population, economic development, and changes in cultural and social norms. Thus far we have been unable to slow or reverse the practices that continue to produce more air and water pollution, soil and ocean degradation, and ecosystem decline. This paper analyzes the negative anthropogenic impact on the ecosystem and proposes a new design solution: ecomimesis, which uses the natural ecosystem as its template to conserve, restore, and improve existing ecosystems. Through its nonintrusive strategies and designs, and its goal of preserving natural ecosystems and the earth, ecomimesis can become an integral part of stabilizing and rehabilitating our natural world at the same time that it addresses the needs of growing economies and populations around the world.


1967 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-90
Author(s):  
J. A. Hudson ◽  
L. Knopoff

abstract The two-dimensional problems of the scattering of harmonic body waves and Rayleigh waves by topographic irregularities in the surface of a simplified model of the earth are considered with especial reference to the processes of P-R, SV-R and R-R scattering. The topography is assumed to have certain statistical properties; the scattered surface waves also have describable statistical properties. The results obtained show that the maximum scattered seismic noise is in the range of wavelengths of the order of the lateral dimensions of the topography. The process SV-R is maximized over a broader band of wavelengths than the process P-R and thus the former may be more difficult to remove by selective filtering. An investigation of the process R-R shows that backscattering is much more important than forward scattering and hence topography beyond the array must be taken into account.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ciaran McMorran

This chapter explores how James Joyce evokes an overarching concern with the linear in his works, both formally (in terms of the Euclidean ideal of rectilinearity) and conceptually (in terms of linear narratives, histories, arguments, modes of thought, etc.). In particular, it considers how the non-linearity of Joyce’s works reflects a wider questioning of the straight line in modernist literature which followed the development of non-Euclidean geometries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This chapter also provides an overview of the geometric babble which entered into the context of Joyce’s writing following the popularization of non-Euclidean geometry in modernist art and literature, as well as the “fashionable nonsense” associated with the application of geometric concepts in contemporary literary criticism. By referring to the source texts which informed Joyce’s articulation of multiple geometric registers, it traces his engagement with non-Euclidean geometry to his early readings of Giordano Bruno’s mathematical and philosophical works, illustrating how notions associated with the curvature of the straight line inform the structural composition of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.


Author(s):  
Courtney Catherine Barajas

Guðlac A details the eponymous saint’s relationships with the holy landscape surrounding his hermitage and its other-than-human inhabitants. The poem suggests that the work of Guðlac’s sainthood is sustained devotion to the Earth community. As an exemplum of Old English ecotheological living, Guðlac’s legend offers a challenge to the concept of environmental “stewardship” of the Earth community in favor of a model of mutual custodianship calls for sustained and deliberate devotion to the created world for its own sake and as a manifestation of the Creator’s love and glory. It also suggests that sustained engagement with the natural world even in the face of environmental crisis or collapse will be rewarded, in this life or the next.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ignacio Rojas-Sola ◽  
David Hernández-Díaz ◽  
Ricardo Villar-Ribera ◽  
Vicente Hernández-Abad ◽  
Francisco Hernández-Abad

This article presents evidence of the convenience of implementing the geometric places of the plane into commercial computer-aided design (CAD) software as auxiliary tools in the computer-aided sketching process. Additionally, the research considers the possibility of adding several intuitive spatial geometric places to improve the efficiency of the three-dimensional geometric design. For demonstrative purposes, four examples are presented. A two-dimensional figure positioned on the flat face of an object shows the significant improvement over tools currently available in commercial CAD software, both vector and parametric: it is more intuitive and does not require the designer to execute as many operations. Two more complex three-dimensional examples are presented to show how the use of spatial geometric places, implemented as CAD software functions, would be an effective and highly intuitive tool. Using these functions produces auxiliary curved surfaces with points whose notable features are a significant innovation. A final example provided solves a geometric place problem using own software designed for this purpose. The proposal to incorporate geometric places into CAD software would lead to a significant improvement in the field of computational geometry. Consequently, the incorporation of geometric places into CAD software could increase technical-design productivity by eliminating some intermediate operations, such as symmetry, among others, and improving the geometry training of less skilled users.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (15) ◽  
pp. eaax6212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Ki Lee ◽  
Zhonghua Xi ◽  
Young-Joo Lee ◽  
Yun-Hyeong Kim ◽  
Yue Hao ◽  
...  

This study starts from the counterintuitive question of how we can render conventional stiff, nonstretchable, and even brittle materials sufficiently conformable to fully wrap curved surfaces, such as spheres, without failure. Here, we extend the geometrical design method of computational origami to wrapping. Our computational wrapping approach provides a robust and reliable method for fabricating conformal devices for arbitrary curved surfaces with a computationally designed nonpolyhedral developable net. This computer-aided design transforms two-dimensional (2D)–based materials, such as Si wafers and steel sheets, into various targeted conformal structures that can fully wrap desired 3D structures without fracture or severe plastic deformation. We further demonstrate that our computational wrapping approach enables a design platform that can transform conventional nonstretchable 2D-based devices, such as electroluminescent lighting and flexible batteries, into conformal 3D curved devices.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gemma Musacchio ◽  
Tiziana Lanza ◽  
Giuliana D’Addezio

<p>The present paper describes an experience of science theatre addressed to children of primary and secondary school, with the main purpose of making them acquainted with a topic, the interior of the Earth, largely underestimated in compulsory school curricula worldwide. A not less important task was to encourage a positive attitude towards natural hazards that are here presented as an expression of our planet vitality. We conducted the experience with the help of a theatrical company specialized in shows for children, trying to merge scientific accuracy, entertainment and ethical issues. Several performances have been reiterated in different context, giving us the opportunity of conducting a preliminary survey with a public of different ages, skills and expectations. Results suggest that science theatre, while relying on creativity and emotional learning has the potential to raise children interest on the process of making science, on natural phenomena and may trigger a positive attitude on natural disasters reduction best practices.</p>


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