I would think they would use the language of mathematics, and I'm not
sure how it would contribute to an understanding of emergence. Others
whose knowledge of geometry is fresher than mine could explain it
better, but basically, once the length of the sides of a triangle is
fixed, by driving a nail or a bolt through the corners, for instance,
then there is only one set of internal angles that are possible for
those lengths, so the shape of the triangle can't be changed without
breaking the connections at the corners. For a quadrilateral, though,
the size of pairs of internal angles can be changed so that as one
angle grows larger, the adjacent one grows smaller, preserving the
total of 360 degrees; therefore a quadrilateral can be smushed
(technical term) as long as the connections at the corners can be made
to flex, without having to change the lengths of the sides.
js
On Jun 6, 2009, at 11:57 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
On a recent friday, as part of my worrying about emergence, I was
trying to find out what sort of language wise people use when they
explain the greater resistance of triangles to compression. it
seemed to me that that example provided all the complexity we
needed for a thorough-going discussion of emergence. So if I could
learn how wise people talked about it, perhaps I could learn how to
talk about emergence in general.
In what field, I wonder, do they discuss the greater strength of
some configurations of members vis -a vis others. SOMEBODY offered
me the answer to that question, but I have forgotten what the answer
was. Some sort of mechanics .... elementary? Can anybody remember
or provide the information again? Why are triangles strong?
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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