[HN Gopher] Mathematicians discover new class of shape seen thro...
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Mathematicians discover new class of shape seen throughout nature
Author : pseudolus
Score : 64 points
Date : 2024-09-22 17:56 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
| eh_why_not wrote:
| Looking past Nature magazine's unnecessarily fancy/clickbait
| title, the original work's [0] title is " _Soft cells and the
| geometry of seashells_ ".
|
| [0]
| https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/9/pgae311/77546...
| crazygringo wrote:
| It's also funny that while the title uses the baity word
| "discover", the very first paragraph merely claims the
| mathematicians "described" the shapes.
|
| I know that in newspapers and magazines, editors write
| headlines rather than authors to get clicks, regardless of
| accuracy. I would have thought _Nature_ would try to be better
| though...
| excalibur wrote:
| Reminds me of those stupid Lipozene ads circa 2012:
|
| "Researchers have now discovered a capsule that helps reduce
| this 'body fat', and control your weight."
| A_D_E_P_T wrote:
| It's pretty egregious clickbait for Nature -- more along the
| lines of what I'd expect from Forbes or a similar outfit.
|
| I mean, the title is saying that they "discovered" the "new
| class of shape" featured in this old kitchen tile:
| https://www.contemporist.com/reasons-why-you-should-get-crea...
|
| Come on, now. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were surely
| aware of it, and used similar pointed/curved and lenticular
| shapes in art and design.
| mmooss wrote:
| > The Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku was designed architect Zaha
| Hadid, whose buildings use soft cells to avoid or minimize
| corners.
|
| Its large glass front formed by the concrete 'soft cell' is
| tiled, sadly, with rectangles.
| mmooss wrote:
| I should know this in order to post on HN, but I hope someone
| will explain: In mathematics, what is the difference between a
| grid, tiling, packing, and tessellation?
|
| I've read several sources without forming a precise answer. My
| best guess is that a grid is about the lines formed by and
| forming tiling polygons; tiling is about polygons (assuming 2-d)
| filling a space; packing is filling a space with a defined
| polygon (again if 2-d) whether or not it's filled completely; and
| tessellation is a form of tiling that requires some kind of
| periodicity?
|
| Edit: I forgot 'packing'!
| thechao wrote:
| A grid is a set of points, described by a basis. A tiling is
| like puzzle pieces, but with a fixed number of piece "shapes".
| A packing is a way to stuff a set of things into a space.
| Tilings and packings are related, but the subfields are asking
| different questions.
| smokel wrote:
| You may also like: lattice.
| mmooss wrote:
| Thank you! I do.
|
| https://mathworld.wolfram.com/PointLattice.html
| dexwiz wrote:
| Tilings cover an entire plane with no gaps or overlaps. Opposed
| to packings which may leave gaps.
| itronitron wrote:
| I may be wrong but I think 'packing' may allow the shapes to
| vary in size.
| jedisct1 wrote:
| Could that have applications to 3D printing?
| OutOfHere wrote:
| In 3D printing you need pieces that can fit together into each
| other, not merely tile together. It should however be quite
| interesting to extend the soft cell shapes to also fit together
| while preserving softness. Perhaps it is possible that the
| shown saddle-like shape in Fig 6, Panel 4 of the PNAS Nexus
| article can serve this purpose, but it is not clear how.
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