[Edu-sig] Re: Idle play

[Arthur]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: edu-sig-bounces at python.org [mailto:edu-sig-bounces at python.org] On
> Behalf Of André Roberge
> Kirby Urner wrote:
> [snip...]

> 
> I was thinking a few days ago of writing a *recursive* function to
> create Pascal's triangle ... as an alternative example to the
> traditional Fibonacci's numbers.   I suspect (and will have to spend
> some time reading!) that the link you gave may provide a lot of
> potential examples of recursive functions.  I always found that, using
> only fib(n) as an example of recursion was not very inspiring.

Those of us with commitment to connecting programming and the humanities ;)
might hope that in introuding Pascal's triangles we would not altogether
miss the opportunity to put Pascal's insights in the context of his life and
times, and broader interests in religion and philosophy.

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Pascal/RouseBall/RB_Pascal.html

As well as his further contributions to mathematics and its development:

Pascal's theorem being foundational in the development of projective
geometry:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PascalsTheorem.html

It is truly bizarre to me that I can say this and actually believe it, but
it *is* true that I am unaware of a tool available that can better
illustrate Pascal's Theorem (because it does so dynamically, and for the
full range of conics - by allowing the conic to form as a projection of a
circle onto an arbitrary and dynamically movable plane in space) than does
PyGeo.

To break no rules - PyGeo is written in Python. In my case, necessarily.


Art