Alison, a high-school physics teacher, writes:
Like many scientists, the wonder of the natural laws of the Universe is where I draw my spiritual inspiration. I also study the religions of the world, and have been fascinated by the reoccurring theme of Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. The Mandelbrot Set (top) represents Creation, with the emergent properties of a simple equation that produces such a rich, complex, and unpredictable fractal pattern that goes on into Infinity. The equation for hydrostatic equilibrium (bottom left) represents Preservation, describing the precarious balance between crushing gravity and expanding pressure inside of stars (including our own) to keep them in a stable, sustainable size for billions of years. The equation describing entropy (bottom right) symbolizes Destruction, simply stating that this fundamental break down of systems and accumulation of disorder either increases or stays the same over time, but never decreases. All three circle around the Delta, the symbol for Change.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Very nice, crisp line work! This is a phenomenal tattoo!
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Oh! Just *today* my calculus prof showed Mandlebrot in class, and I’ve been talking about it all day since!
He should have asked for a tattoo of the Mandlebrot set itself, but, in *full* detail!
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Just read the full description, that is a beautiful tattoo!
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I am astonished! Awesome!
But I think “energy conservation” is more appropriate than “hydrostatic equilibrium”, because it’s a general law.
Creation could be:
a+|n> = sqrt(n+1)|n+1>
and anihilation:
a|n> = sqrt(n)|n-1>
Regards
April 24th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I would have preferred Old MacDonald’s Last Theorem:
e(i)-e(i)=0
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:29 am
[...] Can’t tell which equation is the Mandelbrot Set, which the hydrostatic equation, which the description of entropy? Can’t figure out why the delta, and otherwise confused? Alison explains it all, at Carl Zimmer’s blog, The Loom. [...]