

Math for Artists: Exponents and Radicals - toponium
http://www.cattail.nu/school_web/math107/math_artists.html

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chwahoo
I was expecting (or hoping) that the pictorial versions would somehow
illuminate why these various identities hold. But they seem to be just an
alternative set of symbols.

I wonder why numerals are used to represent 2 and 3 in some places, but
stacked boxes are used in others?

The idea appears to be that artists find the use of colors easier to memorize
/ mentally manipulate compared to letters for variable identifiers. I'm not an
artist, so I'm curious if others find this to be true.

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hsmyers
Actually as both artist and mathematician, the first thing I had to do is
'translate' her visualization into something I could relate to my
visualization on a given subject. Hmmm--- that is not really clear; I suppose
what I mean is that we all 'see' things differently, the trick is to line
things up! BTW, I didn't really notice the colors, so for me at least they
made little difference...

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roryokane
When I imagine mathematical operations like these, I sometimes imagine numbers
moving around, distorting, and fading in and out in a way representative of
the calculation. For instance, “x^2 * x” would show the x on the right moving
onto the x on the left, and the 2 fading down to be replaced by a 3 fading in,
like an odometer. I’d like to some day create a Flash animation of some
calculation showing those movements.

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hammock
What is the one with the eyeballs? I don't get that one.

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corysama
It's the same as the one right above it. It's just redone in a silly way to
make it easier to remember. (The hair and lips don't mean anything)

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CallMeV
They just cancel each other out.

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sp332
Looks just like variablekitten from Abstruse Goose:
<http://abstrusegoose.com/345>

