He seems to be reverse engineering his age
March 12, 2012 2:39 PM   Subscribe

Non-materialist mathematician is having a milestone birthday. Looking for small mathematical sculpture or something similar and unique as a present. Need ideas and links.

He's turning 70, looks and acts like a 50yr old. Likes long walks in the bush, green engineering and Grassmann algebra. Not acquisitive but has any gadget he already needs. I'm after something small, decorative and/or useful for his study to remember me by. Budget around $100, not enough time to commission a work.
posted by Kerasia to Grab Bag (18 answers total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 


Another site, similar 3D printing technology - and it opens beers: Klein bottle bottle opener.
posted by mr vino at 2:42 PM on March 12, 2012


A 3D-printed mathematical shape, like this gyroid? (The metal versions are nicer than the white plastic shown.)
posted by introp at 2:45 PM on March 12, 2012


Best answer: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com have a lot of neat mathematics/science inspired objects. I like these cups.
posted by ennui.bz at 2:46 PM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Easy one: Get him a Klein Bottle.

Klein bottles are a 3-dimensional version of the 2-dimensional Mobius Strip. Just as the latter is a 2-dimensional object with a single continuous surface, so is the Klein bottle a 3-dimensional object with a single continuous surface. Just as the Mobius strip must pass through 3 dimensions, though, the Klein Bottle must pass through 4, and so these sculptures are technically a 3-d representation of an object that that exists in 4.

Better still, the ones at the link are made by Clifford Stoll, who briefly rose to fame in the late 1980s during his astronomy days at UC Berkeley, when, as a system administrator, he discovered an intruder who turned out to be an East German Hacker who was freelancing for the KGB.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:47 PM on March 12, 2012 [2 favorites]


Is he a fractal fan? Maybe a Lichtenburg Figure in Plexiglass? Supposedly they're fractal down to the molecular level.
posted by supercres at 2:48 PM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Grand Illusions Toy Shop has tons of great things along these lines.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:50 PM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Grand Illusions math toys page for a more specific starting place.

Note also, if this if a professor, that a personal note indicating how he has influenced you as a student or mathematician or problem solver is the very best kind of gift.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:52 PM on March 12, 2012


ThinkGeek.com has plenty of amusements.

See also Roger van Oech's Ball of Whacks and related X-Ball, which he created as a toy to stimulate creativity.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:56 PM on March 12, 2012


Best answer: I think what you need is this spectacular presentation of E8. I'm not enough of an algebraist to be able to tell you the precise connection between Grassman Algebras and Lie groups, but there probably is one.

It's a really nice sculpture. Lots of symmetry, and different symmetries every time you turn it.

Get the lighted base.
posted by leahwrenn at 3:00 PM on March 12, 2012 [2 favorites]


Best answer: My dad is a mathematician and I recently got him Byrne's Six Books of Euclid. It gives proofs mainly based on images as opposed to words. This is a reprint by Taschen and is apparently quite nice.
posted by sciencegeek at 3:03 PM on March 12, 2012


biscotti got me a Klein bottle for Christmas and it is awesome.

Also the guy who makes them is entertainingly insane. It arrives in a box with... interesting... personalized decorations, photos of him packing it in the box, fascinating literature, and the best warranty on the planet.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:08 PM on March 12, 2012


The Euclid books are gorgeous. They're a good gift for an art geek as well as a math geek. They're in hardcover bindings and beautifully produced. I don't own them, I just lusted after them in a bookstore.
posted by vacapinta at 3:27 PM on March 12, 2012


Response by poster: Yikes! So many options. Thanks all!

I've gone with Byrne's Six Books of Euclid, for the beauty of the book, and because the Prof (though not my Prof in school) did beautiful hand-drawn graphics for his own thesis. I'd buy Klein Bottle Opener in a heartbeat if he drank beer. Instead I'll send a lovely organic shiraz to be sipped while he browses his new book and thinks of me.
posted by Kerasia at 3:29 PM on March 12, 2012


Ooooh, if you change your mind, this woman does wonderful sculptures. Bathsheba
posted by Vaike at 3:44 PM on March 12, 2012


sorry. didn't notice the Klein Bottle Opener was hers. I have bought art from her and it's just fabulous!
posted by Vaike at 3:46 PM on March 12, 2012


Response by poster: I love the Bathsheba stuff but, although Australia is in the drop-down international post list, it has been defaulting to the UK when I've tried to purchase. And postage to the UK even on a small item came to half my budget.

A Bathsheba item may have to wait for his 75th or 80th birthday.
posted by Kerasia at 3:54 PM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: So this, in part, is the response to my gift of Byrne's Six Books of Euclid to the mathematician (thanks again sciencegeek).
What a lovely present you sent. It is exquisitely beautiful. I have always dreamt that I would be able to present my own work in such a graphically, colourful easy-to-read way. I will be studying it carefully to see how Oliver Byrne did it. I am a very difficult person to buy presents for, because I have my own fixed ideas of what I like, and I don't want any more objects anyway. But this is different my friend. You have twigged me to a tee!
Success!
posted by Kerasia at 6:07 PM on March 29, 2012 [3 favorites]


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