﻿ futurebird – Page 2 – mathematical sandbox

## Notebook Collection Part 3

This is my third post on my extensive collection of notebooks. You can find part one here and part two here.

I have a lot of notebooks that are manufactured in Japan. Shown here are several of these from Kinokuniya Bookstore near Bryant park and from Mitsuwa Marketplace in New Jersey. I also have a few of the Japanese-style Molskine notebooks, which are not really from Japan, but pay hommage to a very useful binding method. (I wish Molskine made extra large versions of these notebooks.)

The quality of pens and paper goods from Japan tends to be quite high, they seem to have a better selection of pens that write with a very fine lines. The notebooks often have english phrases on the cover, mostly as decoration, the words don't make much sense. So that seems to suggest that in Japan some western things can be desirable or fashionable. In the US Japanese things are fashionable. And I find Japanese things that go for a western "feel" fascinating. Take "campus" notebooks, they try to evoke the classic leafy green American (or maybe British) college campus with their name and designs. I, in turn, buy notebooks that evoke a Japanese paper company evoking an idyllic campus. Soon in Japan, no doubt, it will be fashionable to get American things that are trying to be like Japanese things that are trying to be like American things. This will create an infinite loop and collapse into a notebook perfection cross-Pacific cultural black hole.

What was I saying? Notebooks. From Japan. (Mostly) Let's look inside!

The pages are smooth and "fountain pen friendly" as they say over at The Fountain Pen Network a great online community with it's own collection of notebook lovers! One of the last courses I took for my masters degree was Topology. It was a lovely course and I used one of these as my "final" notebook. (I always reorganize my notes from class in to a neater, more comprehensive format in my own words and a means of studying. I call this the "final" notebook, since to study for the final I only need to sit down and read it.) At any rate the notebook I kept for that course was one of my best ever. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back to take more classes!

Would you look at the size of this thing? "The Folio Sketchbook - A3" is just like a regular Molskine (it even has the elastic strap and back pocket!) but it's the size of a movie poster. I saw it and fell in love instantly. I can't quite make up my mind what to put in it yet, but I know something will come to me. What would you use it for?

Opening this thing is almost emotional. It's like opening the door to a special room that's just waiting for you to shape it in to a wonderful place. There is something about having a book so big that you must turn your head to look around the page that just makes the whole experience more immersive. This is why I love books with big pages so much. Most of my collection is on the larger side, I find I can do more with more space to write.

And speaking of big books. Look at this beast. It's the "The World's Largest Italian Leather Journal" -- due to the leather cover and other fine materials (leather increases in cost rapidly the larger a piece you require) this book costs $2,000. It's mostly used by big hotels and universities as a kind of guest book. At least they don't have to worry about someone wandering off with it! This brings to a close post on the collection. But I will continue to review new additions to the collection from time to time. In my next post I'll share what's INSIDE of some of my full notebooks. ## Summer courses almost over, "children's" books in the works. This summer is one I will remember. I taught both differential equations and calculus II for the first time. Seeing these subjects from the instructors side has really opened my eyes to all kinds of details I never noticed before. One of the most striking new insights is how much these two courses have in common. They both rely deeply on sequences and series. Sequences are like a hallway in mathematics, one that connects many many many rooms. I am working on two math book projects. The first is a Japanese-styled art book on the topic of sine and cosine. It's inspired by many of the lessons I taught this summer. I want to bring all of the different ways that sine and cosine are presented in elementary and undergraduate mathematics in to one (long) pictorial document. I start with the differential equation, $y''+y=0$ then solved it (using the series method from differential equations) producing $\sin x = \sum^{\infty}_{n=0} \frac{(-1)^n}{(2n+1)!} x^{2n+1}$ and $\cos x = \sum^{\infty}_{n=0} \frac{(-1)^n}{(2n)!} x^{2n}$ Next I wanted a pictorial way to relate these power series to the unit circle. I have found it in this spiral (the first image shows how it is constructed as an involution): The vertical and horizontal components will form the power series for sine and cosine respectively. Take the series of vertical line segments: $\sin x = A_1A_2 - A_3A_4 + A_5A_6 - \cdots$ and so on, the segments repeatedly over and under-shoot the accutal value of sine. The full paper by Leo S. Gurin, "A problem", can be found here. I'm going to incorporate Gurin's spiral in to my book. I want to show the power series literally flying out of it, like they have come to life. I wonder if I can make it like the famous drawing of the sine curve projecting out of the unit circle? Naturally, I already have planned to put that diagram in my booklet. The Japanese-style book is perfect for series and periodic functions It's one long continuous piece of paper: Yet very compact: I'm also working on a very silly book about hypercycloids (that's the "math" name for the shapes drawn by spirographs, did I mention I collect spirographs?): I'm trying to make it like a children's book, fun, light, a little silly: I can't wait to share the final product. ## Notebook Collection Part 2 In which I continue to share my collection of blank notebooks and journals. These are some of my large notebooks, the theme here is "unconventional paper" -- blank paper and lined paper are very nice, but when you spend as much time as I do staring at notebooks a change of scenery is nice. Whitelines paper is a love or hate thing. I know many people who love it and just as many who can't stand it. I'm on the love side. I find it much easier to see my drawings and diagrams without black lines cutting through them. I have rejected many notebooks for having lines that are far too dark. To my eye dark lines look cheap, like those cartoon character notebooks you see in dollar stores. The Rhodia Dot Pad was my favorite paper until I discovered Writersblok dot paper. As I mentioned in my previous post Writersblok is very much underrated and they make the best dot paper around. I'll show you why: Here you see the inside of the three notebooks with dotted paper. The Bob's Your Uncle notebook is very fun, but the dots are so big that they don't really work for graphing. (Bob's Your Uncle graph paper notebooks on the other hand are amazing, very relaxed light green grid, I'd share but I filled them all up so quickly that I have no blank pages!) Rhodia is better, but the dots still stand out on the very white paper. But, Writersblok has it perfect! Look at how fine those dots are, they almost don't even show up in the photo! What about the green "custom" number? It's a mix of different types of graph paper, dot papers and blank pages. Next up? Hardcover books: I keep my eye out for re-purposed journals with scientific or mathematical themes. The burgundy recycled journal has a Coptic binding. (I'm not a huge fan of Coptic binding, but this one is very nice!) Open it to find... I don't know what to write in the "mathematics" book it is very formal and commanding isn't it? This RECORD book has a lovely red satin bookmark. These can be found at old house sales, or on Amazon for around$20.

I don't often used lined pages but I'll make an exception. The numbered pages and "Table of Contents" page are the kind of little touches that make me fall in love with a notebook. The red and black record book to the right also has numbered pages....

... BUT instead it has quad paper! My favorite. I first discovered this notebook at a Manhattan stationary store. It was very dusty and I literally fished it out from behind a cabinet. It was torn in a few places, but the store owner still wanted $90 for it! I was so in love I almost bought it. So, when I discovered I could get one on Amazon for$30 ... well that seemed like a deal. I want to take this one camping with me this summer.

I still have a lot more to share, but that's all for today! If you have notebooks that you love let me know in the comments.

## Notebook Collection

There is nothing quite as exciting as a fresh blank notebook full of possibilities, well except, perhaps a full worn notebook filled with new mathematics! I can admit that I'm addicted to notebooks. Whenever I see one, with a new kind of color or material I buy it. As such, a shelf in our house is totally devoted to blank notebooks.

It was only a few months ago when I put them all in one place that it hit me how many I'd accumulated. These are all blank. I go through about one or two notebooks per week (of the Moleskine Cahier size) So, I have almost a whole bookcase full of full notebooks as well. I use Rhodia, Moleskine, Whitelines, Writer's block and other big brands quite often, In this post I'll focus on the more rare and unique stuff, the notebooks that make my hand tremble with excitement as I get ready to make that first mark on the unblemished page! The notebooks that I cherish, they are almost too good to write in, yet, I await the day that I mark them with such pent-up desire!

Okay, maybe I'm getting a little too excited here, on with the notebooks!

Although I like large notebooks best I do have a few small ones that I could not resist. Here we have: Quattero, a generic red notebook, an antique 1950s notebook, Writer's block "Dots" mini notebook and "Tidbit" Free Cut memo.

Quattero notebooks come in all sizes, they are a little pricy, but the paper is so smooth and thick it's worth it, the only thing I don't like about them is that the backs of the papers are blank, you only get the grid on one side, considering that the paper is bleed-proof this seems like a missed opportunity.

Writersblok is one of the most underrated notebooks around. They are a less expensive version of the "Moleskine Cahier" but, even if they cost more than Moleskine I'd still take them over the Moleskine any day! Why? DOTS. Dots are the ideal method of ruling the blank page, grid paper is too distracting, lined paper looks awful if you stop to make drawings and graphs as often as I do. So dotted paper is one of the main things I look for in a notebook. The dots in the Writersblok notebooks are the best, they are whisper light, so that you'll almost forget they are there. Yet when you look at your pages you'll see that the lines are straighter, graphs are more accurate and the text is evenly spaced. I've been seeing more and more kinds of dot paper, I really hope it catches on!

Antique notebooks fascinate me. Especially those that have survived totally blank and untouched like this one for decades. I love that this little memo book has an even smaller notebook (not an address book!) tucked inside. If I ever think of the perfect use for it I will use it, but for now it remains untouched, it is one of my most cherished notebooks. (*sniff*)

Ever since I started loving blank books and shopping for them I have starting HATING address books, planners and photo albums. Why? Often I'll see a notebook on the shelf, the perfect size! The perfect color! I reach for it and.... it's a PHOTO ALBUM! ugh. So annoying. I end up wondering who are all of the people who like photo albums and address books so much, have they not heard of Flikr and gmail? I suppose they must be wondering what's with all of the blank books... who needs paper? I have an iPad.

(I will continue sharing my collection in the next post.)

## Of yarn and math.

Yarn has been on my mind. It's on my mind because I love to knit, but also because of this post I read some weeks ago on the mathematics stack exchange. The author presents a paper about an "optimal yarn ball" that looks like this:

Very cool, but it would be impossible to do that with real yarn! (Though, I doubt that was their goal here.) When wrapping yarn around a ball you cannot make sharp turns or the yarn will fall off. If we think of the yarn as a curve on the surface of the sphere, we would say it must have curvature less than some small constant m. (meaning the best fit tangental circle must have radius greater than $\frac 1m$)

## A good starting point.

Looking for a new area of mathematics to explore? If there is anything on this page that you have not studied, it might prove to be a good starting point.

It is a nice list.

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## Introducing the multi-zeta function!

Contemplating:

$\frac{\pi ^{2n}}{(2n+1)!} = \displaystyle \sum_{j_1,...j_n=1 \atop j_i \neq j_k}^{\infty} (j_1j_2...j_n)^{-2}$

My friend, and fellow math blogger, Owen, tried to tell me I was dealing with the multi-zeta function the other day, but the very general definition on WolframMathworld left me feeling a little mystified. I could see how the identities I was playing with fit in to it, but what was all of that other stuff (like $\sigma_1,...,\sigma_k$? I guess in my equation they are all 1? Why isn't it dealing with powers of the active variable in the product in the denominator? Why the extra level of subscripts?) So, I asked about it on stackexchange to gain more insight, and, thanks to Marni, I was promptly pointed to this lovely paper:

Now, I can see easily that the function is:

$A(i_1, i_2, ... , i_k) = \sum_{n_1 > n_2 > \cdots > n_k > 1} \frac{1}{n_1^{i_1}n_2^{i_2} \cdots n_k^{i_k}}$

With $i_1, i_2, ... , i_k = 2$.

More on this later.

Meaning one may repeat values,

## Play with the follium!

I've discovered Wolfram Alpha's widget builder. It's very easy to make little searches that help focus your readers (or students) on certian topics in Wolfram's massive database. Use the above to investigate the follium ... as I mentioned in an earlier post.