Month: July 2019

Simplicity

We have learned simplicity,
we sing in the choir of cicadas

 

In 2004, the midwest of the USA became the region of the largest outbreak of biomass on the planet. Brood X emerged, the largest of the periodical cicadas, with a life cycle of 17 years.

Cicada077

They spend most of their life underneath as nymphs, going through several instars, and feeding from root juices of trees. Then, almost all on the same day, they emerge, and crawl up.

Cicada060

They molt into adulthood, which takes up to an hour. All this takes place above an abyss. If they fall, the soft wings will not unfold properly.

Cicada068

In the last stage, the wings unfold.

Cicada098

They hide and rest for a few days. This is supposedly the time they are most delicious.

Cicada063

Then, they tumble around, with their poor eyesight and clumsy bodies, causing harm to none, and begin their irresistible mating chant, droning sound patterns that move through the landscape like ambient music.

17 years underneath, for a few weeks of a single song. Who will question the meaning of life?

Time and Space

This has been an extraordinary summer. Weather wise, flooding rain falls were followed by torching heat, and now we are enjoying a dry summer weather that would be more typical for Northern Michigan. Time for a visit to the DePauw Nature Park, whose quarry enclosed space I would avoid on regular summer days. 

DSC 1677

It’s as green as it gets, promising a gorgeous fall coloring. Everything seems to take advantage of its given time and space.

DSC 1625

The abundance of vegetation creates patterns that are unusual for this place.

DSC 1633

More typical are the lonely little ones, like the young sycamore trying to make roots in the harsh ground,

DSC 1655

or the singular dandelion, gazing into our future.

DSC 1675

Imaginary Simplicity

Multiplication with the imaginary number √-1 accomplishes a counterclockwise 90° rotation, and that’s what today’s puzzle is based on. As casual readers will know, I enjoy simple things that rapidly get complicated. This puzzle is played on a rectangular checker board, with checker pieces in various colors placed on the squares. A move consists of rotating a checker about another checker by 90° either way. Below is the puzzle graph for a 3×3 board using two adjacent checkers, showing all possible positions and the possible moves indicated by edges that are colored by the checker you rotate about:

2example 01

It’s clear that in this case the two checkers have to stay together, and this poses no real challenge: Dealing with just two checkers is simple. Let’s add another one. Below you can see all possible six moves from the central position. You can either rotate about green or blue, but not (yet) about red.

Ex3colors3x3 01

The puzzle graph in this case is connected and has diameter 7. You will notice that the checkers cannot change their parity. As simple count will tell you that there are therefore 80=5x4x4 possible positions or vertices. Below is a simple example how a puzzle could look like, with an optimal solution: Use as few moves as possible to get from the left position to the right one.

3colors3x3

Naturally, things get trickier with more checkers and larger boards. Below is an optimal solution for a 4 checker problem that realizes the diameter 7 of the game graph (that has 240 vertices).

4colors3x3a

Finally, here is a problem on a 3×4 board with 4 checkers. The shortest solution takes 9 moves, and takes place on a game graph with 900 vertices. Having choices is hard, isn’t it?

4colors3x4

There are many variations possible. One can, for instance, designate left and right handed checkers that can only rotate one way, making the puzzle graph directed. One can also turn this into a two person game by letting two players take turns. More about this at a later point.

Morning Song

Most of Indiana was either woodland or prairie, before the arrival of the white man.

DSC 1585

Imagine endless fields filled with tall grasses where you can get lost,

DSC 1566

where flowers spend all night to get ready

DSC 1512

for the morning, and where guest from the South are welcome.

DSC 1557

If you come early,

DSC 1551

when it is very quiet,

DSC 1538

you might even hear a voice from far away: Some mornings are better than others.

DSC 1480

Fold Me!

Last year, Jiangmei Wu and I worked on some infinite polyhedra that can be folded into two different planes. Today, you get the chance to make your own (finite version of it). This is a simple craft that, time and energy permitting, will be featured at a fundraiser for the WonderLab here in Bloomington. You will need 3 (7 for the large version) sheets of card stock, scissors, a ruler and craft knife for scoring, and plenty of tape. A cup of intellectually satisfying tea will help, as always. 

DSC 0924

Begin by downloading the template, print the first three pages onto card stock, and cut the shapes out as above.  Lightly score the shapes along the dashed and dot-dashed line, and valley and mountain fold along them.  Note that there are lines that switch between mountain and valley folds, but all folds are easy to do.

DSC 0925

The letters come into play next. Tape the edges with the same letters together. Begin with the smaller yellow shape, and complete the two halves of the larger blue shapes, but keep them separate for a moment, like so:

DSC 0927

Stick the yellow piece into one of the blue halves, this time matching the digits. Complete the generation 2 fractal by taping the second blue half to the yellow generation 1 fractal and the other blue half.

DSC 0928

This object can be squeezed together in two different planes. Ideal for people who can’t keep their hands to themselves. 

DSC 0929

The next 2 pages of the template repeat the first three without the markings, if you’d like to build a cleaner model. You then need two printouts of page 5. The last page allows you to add on and build the generation 3 fractal. You need 4 printouts. 

DSC 0930

Cut, score, and fold as shown above.

DSC 0931

Again, tape edges together as before. There are no letters here, but the pattern is the same as before. Finally, wiggle the generation 2 fractal into the new orange frame, as you did before with the yellow piece into the blue piece.

DSC 0933

Here is how they now grow in our backyard. If anybody is willing to make a  generation 4 or higher versions of this, please send images.

All these polyhedra have as boundary  just a simple closed curve. Topologists will enjoy figuring out the genus.

Exposed (10 years ago)

The word Steingrund appears in the title of a post that recollects a visit to Desolation Wilderness 25 years ago. 

DSC 3969

Reminiscing today about a visit to Turkey Run State Park 10 years ago let’s me use another word from the same poem.

DSC 3994

The word exposure includes visibility, fragility and presence, and the ominously dark landscape doesn’t seem to convey this, until you notice the cracks, traces of violence that happened here many thousand years ago, unmeasurable for us.

DSC 4068

Patient streams have smoothed the rock and created paths that can be walked best upstream, against time.

DSC 4105

Trees hold on to the rocks with roots like fingers for decades, while unknown plants seem to be ready to flee any minute.

DSC 3967

 

\