theory

^{A close-up of the E_8.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…]

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