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Double Spiral

Double Spiral by Seb Przd.
(help my city!)

Conformal mappings are great: it's a very powerful branch of mathematics, which basically says you can deform almost any 2D object and transform it into something else while keeping the shape of objects the same (on a small scale). Hence this picture: you see no holes, no obvious distortion, but this image cannot be real. This trick is inspired by a painting by M.C. Escher: some Dutch mathematicians have found what the transformation is and explained it in (almost) layman terms.

In this particular case the image is twice repeated. In the parameterization discussed here, this is a (1,2) spiral
This image was done in The Gimp and transformed with MathMap

Comments

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Matt Cline  Pro User  says:

This is a masterpiece. I'm still reading the texts and trying to figure out how to do it mathematically and how you did it in GIMP. This is truly one of the most extraordinary photos I have ever seen.

I am having one problem with the Math plugin. I try downloading it and opening it and my zip program says it can't read the file header. Any suggestions? (I'm using Windows).
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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Seb Przd  Pro User  says:

Thanks! The file www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/~schani/mathmap/mat hmap-1.0.1.t... is a .tar.gz (unix archive) file. Winzip (or the equivalent in Windows) should be able to open it. Sometimes it happens that you download it and IInternet Explorer or Firefox transforms it into a .tar, but you saved it as a .tar.gz which confuses Winzip. Just rename it as a .tar.
If you succeed in compiling MathMap in Windows, let me know, because so far nobody has managed to do so with the latest version of MathMap...
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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strollerdos  Pro User  says:

Wow seb - youve done the impossible AGAIN. continuously amazed by youre technical brillance and creativity.

PLEEEEAAASE set up a web page explaining how to do this stuff.
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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Holliwell says:

that popping sound was my head exploding.

quality work seb
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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!!! k2208  Pro User  says:

wow
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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fazfoto says:

Awesome.
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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I'll fight you for that sandwich says:

this is awesome
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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lloydb  Pro User  says:

This is a great composition.
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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1_drey says:

:-D
Cool!
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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scovophoto  Pro User  says:

Very cool.
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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And... Action!  Pro User  says:

Amazing!
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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jozexit  Pro User  says:

coolnestest!! :]
math and photography.. yey!
Posted 42 months ago. ( permalink )

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Stuck in Customs  Pro User  says:

Okay this is impossibly cool - I am in awe!
Posted 41 months ago. ( permalink )

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I'll fight you for that sandwich says:

blows my mind everytime
Posted 41 months ago. ( permalink )

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Paulina Ullah  Pro User  says:

amazing!!! fav
Posted 41 months ago. ( permalink )

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mediocre  Pro User  says:

That is brilliant!
Posted 40 months ago. ( permalink )

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francois et fier de l'Être  Pro User  says:

C'est génial, purement génial.
Please add to


(gallery & instructions)
Posted 38 months ago. ( permalink )

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M J M  Pro User  says:

Great work, such depth!
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

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Josh Sommers  Pro User  says:

Simply amazing. Great Droste Effect.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

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breic says:

Seb, this looks like what gadl calls a (p1,p2)=(2,1) parameterization for his recursive chessboard. (His (1,-2) chessboard looks rather different.) But then your convention agrees with the authority.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

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Donderwolkje says:

wow this is too cool, need to learn this
Posted 35 months ago. ( permalink )

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lynetter  Pro User  says:

I love photos like this, they remind me of escher drawings. Thanks too for sharing it under creative commons. I used it in my quote mashup set. Hope this is OK, let me know if not. :-)
www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/376632696/in/s et-720575941...
Posted 35 months ago. ( permalink )

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Diego Meijido  Pro User  says:

your work remember me ESCHER
Posted 34 months ago. ( permalink )

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antonioVi  Pro User  says:

Outstanding photo, made with open source software. Please consider posting it in:
Open Source Photography (OSP)
Posted 34 months ago. ( permalink )

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roddh  Pro User  says:

wow! wonderful image. beautiful!
very interesting construction.
Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )

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mortimer?  Pro User  says:

A year ago today! great!!

--
Seen on the explore page. (?)
Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )

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Seb Przd  Pro User  says:

Thanks for the heads up mortimer!
(and if you are not bored with it yet, help my city!)
Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )

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24 Hour Humanity says:

funny picture :)
Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )

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mvongrue  Pro User  says:

Worth bringing it to the front page again. I did not see it so far. Currently I am thinking what to do with the droste effect....but still awating the right sujet.

Great shot
Regards
Markus
Posted 29 months ago. ( permalink )

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photomastergreg  Pro User  says:

Another great work! I'm glad I found your pix!
Greg
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

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megbclemens says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called CCSPreC08, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group. We are a PreCalculus class that is putting together a group of photos with a math theme
Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )

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`^Ashepsut`^  Pro User  says:

Bellissima foto. Sarei lieta di poterla ospitare nel neogruppo
"Girandole e spirali". Se ti va, inviala a: www.flickr.com/groups/in_giro/
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

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C4T4 says:

Complimenti da Girandole e Spirali!
Mi farebbe piacere condividere la tua foto nel mio gruppo.
GIRANDOLE E SPIRALI
Se vuoi , invia la tua bella immagine e commentane almeno una.

Compliments from: Windmills & Spirals!
Please post this beautiful image to the group and comment on 1.


Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

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AllieW (busy)  Pro User  says:

Just amazing!
Posted 18 months ago. ( permalink )

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isavdmisa2 says:

bravissimo !
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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hk_traveller  Pro User  says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called All Favourite Photos, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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Goreki_ says:

Love it
it's like "Whirlpools" from Escher, I'm a huge fan
great work
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

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fotodiagramas  Pro User  says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Fotografía Matemática, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

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mahlisuh  Pro User  says:

so cool!
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

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Laura Lea  Pro User  says:

Wow!
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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[?]
view photos Uploaded on July 9, 2006
by Seb Przd

Seb Przd's photostream

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This photo also belongs to:

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WOW! [Add only pictures commented with a "wow"] (Pool)

Recursivity (Pool)

Amazing Circles (Pool)

100 (One Hundred) Views (-200) (Pool)

AWESOME: commented with awesome (Pool)

L'infini (Pool)

flickr GOLD***invited images only pls*** (Pool)

Escher's Droste Print Gallery (Pool)

All Favourite Photos (Pool)

Fotografía Matemática (Pool)

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