Mastodawn

I was looking into frieze patterns, which are "symmetries of plane patterns that repeat infinitely in one direction only" (and could be used in architectural friezes). John Conway did work on them, and it's always a delight to see his approach to things.

These are from The Symmetries of Things by Conway, Burgiel and Goodman-Strauss (2008).

#mathematics #JohnConway #symmetry

Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 25, 2025

A New Pyramid-Like Shape Always Lands the Same Side Up
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-pyramid-like-shape-always-lands-the-same-side-up-20250625
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381297

* tetrahedron: simplest Platonic solid
* mathematicians made one that’s stable only on one side
* confirms decades-old conjecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid

#math #polyhedra #tetrahedron #balance #JohnConway #PlatonicSolids

A New Pyramid-Like Shape Always Lands the Same Side Up | Quanta Magazine

A tetrahedron is the simplest Platonic solid. Mathematicians have now made one that’s stable only on one side, confirming a decades-old conjecture.

Quanta Magazine

Sci-books.com Apr 28, 2025

Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups (Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, 290) 3rd Edition by John Conway (PDF)
Author: John Conway
File Type: PDF
Download at https://sci-books.com/sphere-packings-lattices-and-groups-grundlehren-der-mathematischen-wissenschaften-290-3rd-edition-0387985859/
#Algebra, #JohnConway

Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups (Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, 290) 3rd Edition by John Conway (PDF) | sci-books.com

David Grayless Apr 23, 2025

Cosmic Variance was a collaborative #weblog discussing physics, #astrophysics, and other topics, written by #JoAnneHewett, #MarkTrodden, #SeanCarroll, #RisaWechsler, #JulianneDalcanton, #CliffordJohnson, #JohnConway, and Daniel Holz. It was the successor to Carroll's earlier blog Preposterous Universe, which began in early 2004 and ran through much of 2005. The blog's name came from the #cosmology concept of #cosmicVariance.

Show thread

the roamer May 6, 2024

@neauoire

Yeah, such a witty and warmhearted portrait of a warmhearted true mathematician. There are many recorded lectures and interviews with the man around, all worth listening to.

I was about 10 when Conway's Life became widely known, and it got me. I spent days on end filling graph paper with experimental Life evolutions (no computers then, of course). I once tried to understand his On Numbers and Games but failed. His little textbook on Automata is lovely. A great man.

#JohnConway

Norobiik @[email protected]Apr 14, 2024

This #CellularAutomata game has since become known as Conway's #GameOfLife and famous for the extraordinary complexity that emerges within it. This #ComputationalUniverse is home to beacons that flash, pulsars that beat time and "gliders" and "spaceships" that fly across the computational sky. #JohnConway

Mathematicians Prove the "Omniperiodicity" of Conway's Game of Life
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/mathematicians-prove-the-omniperiodicity-of-conways-game-of-life

Mathematicians Prove the "Omniperiodicity" of Conway's Game of Life

A problem that has long been a focal point of research for the famous Game of Life, has finally been solved.

Discover Magazine

tripu Aug 17, 2023

Reading about really intelligent people like #JohnConway makes one feel minuscule.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-conway-solved-mathematical-problems-with-his-bare-hands-20200420/

John Conway Solved Mathematical Problems With His Bare Hands

The legendary mathematician, who died on April 11, was curious, colorful and one of the greatest problem-solvers of his generation.

Quanta Magazine

Jim Donegan 🎵 ✅Feb 5, 2023

How '#ParticleLife# #Emerges from #Simplicity

"Particle Life' is a very simple particle #System. The simulation shows the emergence of incredibly beautiful life-like structures from rudimentary rules."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4YirERTVF0&ab_channel=TomMohr

#Emergence #Math #Maths #Mathematics #Rules #PhaseTransition #PhaseTransitions #Science #Evolution #TomMohr #GameOfLife #TheGameOfLife #JohnConway

How Particle Life emerges from simplicity

YouTube

RanaldClouston Dec 18, 2022

#FinishedReading a biography of #JohnConway by @sioroberts while laid up sick in bed. To be frank, Conway is a rather full-on and exhausting character to spend a full book with while under the weather, but the book gives a great sense of his key ideas (not just Life, which he grew to resent), particularly in the search for finite simple sporadic groups, his style, and millieu. #AmReading