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From: flee@cse.psu.edu (Felix Lee)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,alt.sci.physics.plutonium,sci.chem,alt.ascii-art,sci.math
Subject: Re: PARASITES INSIDE OF VIRUSES?
Followup-To: alt.ascii-art
Date: 30 Jul 1994 20:13:06 GMT
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Ludwig Plutonium:
>   I am asking for someone in alt.ascii-art to please do a logarithmic
>spiral as best they can. And there is something very mathwise pleasing
>in this "work of a logarithmic spiral". In a given area, there is one
>maximum-best art work. This might be the first math proof which has a
>profound word to say about art. Within a given area of the computer
>screen there is one and only one best artwork of the logarithmic
>spiral. One maximally-best and the other attempts will be inferior
>artwork.

Sorry, no.  I can trivially prove this false by considering attempts
at representing a logarithmic spiral in a 2x2 area.  They're all
equally bad. :)

ascii art is as much illusion as other art forms are, and as such, it
depends upon accidents of perception, which are partly innate, partly
learned, partly individual.  There isn't even such a thing as a "best"
straight line between two points.  You have to consider, best for what
purpose?

    /  _/  ./  ,/  /'  .'  ,'
  /  _/  ./  ,/  /'  .'  ,'
/  _/  ./  ,/  /'  .'  ,'

Each of these conveys a different style, a different mood.  And
besides, they look different on different terminals.

(sorry for rambling about ascii art in all these sci groups, but
Ludwig brought it up..  Followups narrowed to alt.ascii-art.)

(The best 1x1 logarithmic spiral: @.)
--