L3DT Users' Community

Ah, one for the mathematicians:

http://xkcd.com/c179.html

Hooray for the Euler identity, and its remarkable ability to confuse and confound. I'm sure that, were it not so damn useful, some government would have banned it in the interests of preserving public sanity.

Yeah, this is one of my favorite strips, even though it's over my head at times.

- Oshyan

Hi Oshyan,

I guess that's the thing about in-jokes; often the more exclusive they are, the funnier they are. Fortunately the author and I have a similar background (physics graduates that spend too much time in front of computers), so I have a pretty good strike rate. The current one about the rotation matrix is particularly clever, but you have to know a bit of matrix mathematics to grok it.

Oh, by the way, congratulations on the gig with Planetside. I find it impossible to think that there could be a more qualified or appropriate person for that roll than yourself. I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers,
Aaron.

PS: Oops, I just realised in the title of this thread that I'd originally written e^(PI*i) = 1. That's not true at all; e^(PI*i) = -1, whereas e^0 = 1 (or e^(2PI*i*n) = 1, as the function is cyclical with a period of 2PI).

Thanks Aaron! Naturally I'm pleased as punch.

Surprisingly I think I actually grok the current rotation matrix comic, at least in some sense, but don't ask me to explain it.

- Oshyan