Following questions about John Forbes Nash, made famous through the Hollywood film A beautiful mind; Fermat’s last theorem; and who coined the phrase ‘Eureka’?, comes the last and hardest problem of all.
Question:
Hinke Osinga from the University of Bristol chose an unconventional approach to dealing with the Lorenz equations of the mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz. What did she do?
- The mathematician and cello player translated the equations of the father of chaos theory into a symphony that premiered in Cardiff in 2005. However, the music requires some getting used to.
- Ms Osinga, a learned biologist, checked the ‘butterfly effect’, the statement by Lorenz that `a butterfly in the rain forest beating its wing can cause a tornado in Europe’. Specifically, she studied many butterflies in the laboratory, but failed in creating a tornado this way.
- She created giant oil paintings which are supposed to reflect the equations.
- She crocheted a giant hanging mobile that reflects the equations. Because she really liked this blue and black object, she even used it as a Christmas decoration.
If you don't know the answer, why not try the quiz yourself – as long as your German is up to it!