Tag Archives: Architecture

Even 3-day-old Chicks Do It

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Graham Shawcross

An interesting series of experiments has recently been reported in Science.  (Regani et al 2015). These strongly support the idea that many animals and humans represent numbers by a mental number line where smaller values are located on the left … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Brain Physiology, Enumeration, Logic | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Emergent Images

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

This is a short post on emergent images, still or moving images where objects at first only appear with effort and concentration, but once recognised are very easy to see again even after several months or years. In effect once you have recognised … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Audiology, Brain Physiology, Camouflage, Embodiment, Graphics Technology, Illusions, Objects | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Number Names and Words

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

Number Names George Lakoff has pointed out that we do not normally distinguish numbers from what might be more properly be called number names. (Lakoff 1989)  The most common number naming systems adopt base-10 and use ten single-digit number names, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Classification, Enumeration, Logic | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

What Counts

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

Numerical Abilities As well as being able to roughly compare continuous quantities, humans and animals of various sorts share a method of recognising small numbers of objects or sequences of events that is independent of language.  See Subitising and  Counting Ants Both … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Brain Physiology, Embodiment, Enumeration, Logic | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Counting Ants

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

Counting Ants This is not about how to count ants but how ants count. The post follows research by Zhanna Reznikova and Boris Ryabko that investigates the numerical capacities of ants using ideas from Information Theory such as Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Enumeration, Randomness | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cafetières, Disorder, Chaos and Anarchy

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

At breakfast this morning my wife spilt the coffee because she hadn’t aligned the strainer in the lid of a Bodum cafetière with its pouring sprout.   I suggest this is a stupid design, and “why aren’t the strainer holes all … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Architecture, Design, Haptic Objects, Objects, Products | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

William Tutte’s Hidden Past

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

If William Tutte is remembered at all by architects, it is for his contribution to solving the problem of Squaring the Square . (Tutte 1958) A solution using Graph Theory and Kirchhoff’s Laws for electrical flow in wires that was subsequently used in Philip … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design Methods, Geometry, Logic, Tiling | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Missing Pullover Found

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

My long lost 1970s pullover, slip-over, or perhaps more properly 70s tank-top, has turned up at the back of a cupboard. Last year we had turned the house upside down looking for it. The design is apparently based on the colour … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Architecture, Design, Enumeration, Knitting | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spatial Representation of Number

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

Francis Galton “…this peculiarity is found so far as my observations have extended, in about 1 out of every 30 adult males or 15 females. It consists in the sudden and automatic appearance of a vivid and invariable “Form” in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Brain Physiology, Embodiment, Enumeration | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Five Finger Exercises

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

Written and spoken numbers are represented differently. In English numbers are usually written with Arabic numerals or as a transliteration of the spoken version, for example 342 or three hundred and forty two. Rod counting provides a written representation of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Brain Physiology, Enumeration | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment