A close-up of the E8 group’s extensive use of socks and sandals.
Earlier this year, we gave the Chinscratcher Award For The Sexiest Mathematic Theory Of 2007 to “The E8 Root System”. In that article, I examined the use of “Socks and Sandals” by the theoretical mathematicians involved. To be honest, I was not aware that others had noticed the “Sock and Sandals” phenomenon previously. However, I think I am first to note the unique predilection of mathematicians for this style of footwear. To demonstrate what I am talking about, I ask the reader to examine the E8 group photo in detail (click below to see larger version). Here you see the footwear in its raw, uninhibited state: [click to continue…]
A close-up of the E8.The E8visualisation was generated by John Stembridge, who based his computer generation code on a hand-drawn E8 system by Peter McMullen in the 1960s.
The Chinscratcher Award for “The Sexiest Mathematic Theory Of 2007″ goes to…“The E8 Root System”
The E8 is a 248 dimensional Lie algebra, and you can find out what that means here, or you can watch this colorful video:
Why did the E8 get the award? First of all, the E8 Root System is related to the “Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything” by A. Garrett Lisi. The name of this theory alone brought a glint of envy to my eye. But when it was linked to the exceptionally complex vector drawing above, the sexiest of this theory increased by a power of eight. You can enjoy the E8 diagram in all its glory by downloading as a PDF file. [click to continue…]
