“I got this tattoo, which encircles my left wrist, in 2000. The tat is described by this function(1/n)*sin(nx)
with n from 1 to 6. I had done a lot of work with fourier transforms on the research project I was involved in as an undergrad physics student, and just find the entire concept very beautiful. At the time that I got the tat, I was a master’s student in materials science and was taking a class on fourier optics. As music also plays a very large role in my life, the image/concept has a double meaning for me. As an added ‘feature’, the artist made a small mistake on the inside of my wrist (the n=4 line disappears for a bit). This really bugged me at first until I decided it was a good metaphor for how the messy reality of life is never perfectly represented by our mathematical theories.”
–Andrea Grant (now a climatology PhD student in Switzerland, where nerdy tattoos are still pretty shocking….)
October 7th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
i think this looks great and could have lots of great thoughts behind it and ahead. congratualtions on it.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
A link to Wolfram Alpha’s nice plots and more info: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%281%2fn%29*sin%28nx%29+for+n+from+1+to+6
See also this one: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot(1%2Fn)*sin(nx)%2C+{n%2C+1%2C+6}%2C+{x%2C+1%2C+pi}] (tried to limit the plots —as displayed on the first link above— to the interval 0-π but couldn’t get it to return the same sort of 2D plots…)
July 20th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Hmm, automatic linking didn’t work. Let’s see how it goes with html: first link, second link.