{"id":3057,"date":"2017-09-06T01:26:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T05:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/?p=3057"},"modified":"2017-09-06T01:26:27","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T05:26:27","slug":"public-domain-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/2017\/09\/06\/public-domain-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Domain Math"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many pieces of mathematics \u2014 for example, simple geometric shapes and some mathematical formulas \u2014 are uncopyrightable or unpatentable. You can\u2019t copyright a square or patent the area formula for a circle. Anyone can use them. But this post is not about the intricacies of patent or copyright law<\/span><\/a> as they apply to mathematics, as fascinating as that can be<\/span><\/a>. This is about different public domain math.<\/span><\/p>\n

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An image from Max Br\u00fcckner’s 1900 book Vielecke und Vielflache: Theorie und Geschichte<\/em> (Polygons and Polyhedra: Theory and History). Credit: Public domain, via Internet Archive<\/p><\/div>\n

The Public Domain Review<\/span><\/a> is a website and nonprofit project that highlights weird and wonderful work that is in the public domain. (The definition of public domain varies by country; Public Domain Review labels their posts<\/span><\/a> with further information if necessary.) I love seeing their posts in my blog feed because they are so varied and interesting. Some are beautiful<\/span><\/a>, some are strange<\/span><\/a>, some are funny<\/span><\/a>. And some are math.<\/span><\/p>\n

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C. H. Hinton used multicolored cubes to illustrate the tesseract. Credit: Public domain, via Internet Archive<\/p><\/div>\n

For instance, this article by Jon Crabb looks into some interesting late nineteenth and early twentieth century writings on dimension<\/span><\/a>. Edwin A. Abbott\u2019s Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions<\/span><\/a> is fairly familiar to mathematicians. It\u2019s some of the most effective math communication I\u2019ve ever read, and as a bonus, you get vicious satire of Victorian social structures. I was unaware of C. H. Hinton\u2019s 1904 treatise The Fourth Dimension<\/i>, which runs away with the idea of a fourth spatial dimension. But it turns out I had already interacted with him, or at least a piece of his legacy: he coined the term tesseract<\/span><\/a> for the four-dimensional analogue of the cube (also called a four-dimensional hypercube). Hinton believed the fourth dimension had psychic as well as physical implications, and his ideas about the fourth dimension influenced artists and writers including Marcel Duchamp and Gertrude Stein. Hinton\u2019s book uses colored cubes to visualize the many cubes in a tesseract. Hinton was married to Mary Ellen Boole, one of the remarkable daughters of George and Mary Everest Boole<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s one of my favorite examples of design meeting mathematics: the 1847 Oliver Byrne edition of the first six books of Euclid\u2019s Elements<\/span><\/a>. And Ernst Chladni\u2019s figures<\/span><\/a> illustrating the nodes of vibrating plates. And \u00c9tienne L\u00e9opold Trouvelot\u2019s astronomical illustrations<\/span><\/a>, including a beautiful depiction of a total solar eclipse.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Credit: Public domain, via New York Public Library<\/p><\/div>\n

Browsing through the mathematics tag<\/span><\/a>, it\u2019s fun to see work from people with enduring legacies as well as some things that are a little out there<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>Mathematics shows up in some unexpected places. You can try to find frieze and wallpaper groups in an 1863 book of French textile samples<\/span><\/a> or identify the curves in a 1919 book of Japanese wave and ripple designs<\/span><\/a>. You can learn the correct proportions for Buddha and Bodhisattva depictions from an eighteenth-century book from Nepal<\/span><\/a>. You can take a peek at early twentieth century data visualization in the infographics W. E. B. DuBois and his students created<\/span><\/a> depicting various facets of African American life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Public Domain Review publishes a lot more than just math and science. It\u2019s a worthy addition to the blogroll for all the interesting artifacts it brings to light, from math and science to art and religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many pieces of mathematics \u2014 for example, simple geometric shapes and some mathematical formulas \u2014 are uncopyrightable or unpatentable. You can\u2019t copyright a square or patent the area formula for a circle. Anyone can use them. But this post is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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