For the pastafarians among us, this seems an ideal way to bring religion
into the classroom.

When I was taking Latin terminology, I used to think of all the ways to
insult people in Latin. Pastacephalic and proctocephalic are two that I
remember.



On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 7:39 AM, Michael Palij <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
> There is an interesting article in the NY Times that focuses on
> a few mathematicians with too much time on their hands and
> the mathematical insights they have had about the shapes of
> pasta.  The article can be accessed here:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/science/pasta-inspires-scientists-to-use-their-noodle.html?src=recg
>
> One aspect of this is coming up with the equation that describes
> the shape of pasta and then using a program like Mathematica
> to visualize the resulting shape.  For an example involving the
> pasta gemelli, see:
> http://shuisman.com/?p=369
>
> For more experienced pasta eaters, here are a variety of pastas:
> http://shuisman.com/?p=1314
>
> And for those whose appetites have been whetted, here is a
> book devoted to the topic titled "Pasta by Design"; see:
> http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500515808.html
>
> Now, I think that this represents a good example of how to
> show the basic mathematical nature of objects in physical
> reality even though most people would not be aware of the
> mathematics involved (one of the persons mentioned in the
> NY Times article claims to have used test items on his
> exams where the student had to match the correct equation
> to a specific pasta -- talk about understanding what the
> equation is about!).
>
> Too bad that the "shape" of human thought does not allow
> itself to such description.  I'd love to have an exam question
> of the form:  "match the 'thought' to the appropriate equation". ;-)
>
> -Mike Palij
> New York University
> [email protected]
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Carol DeVolder, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
St. Ambrose University
518 West Locust Street
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