[DUMBGRUNT]

WARNING! Hoping to improve my low cast status, I read this article.

Near as I can determine, it only resulted in making my brain hurt.

Your mileage may vary.

[Mariner]

There’s no link

[Mr. K]

Why do they have to invent new stupid words?

What was wrong with “Octal” (base 8 numbering system)

[DUMBGRUNT]

Petite, muscular, and wearing a sleeveless black T-shirt (that revealed bruises from mixed martial arts), rolled-up jeans, socks with cartoon aliens on them and Vegetarian Shoes–brand sneakers, in person she was more Vancouverite than the otherworldly figure in her lecture videos.

This young lady would do a number on Mr Laz.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Whatever happened to the furor over the E8 symmetry group? I thought it was supposed to unite the Standard Model with some of the more modern variants?

After all, I almost, or at least have some hope of, understanding octonians. E8 is much further out there.

Wikipedia on E8

Or, this, An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything

[SpaceBar]

The article and accompanying ‘explanatory material’ is a good example why most people are turned off by higher level mathematics. For those who studied A through Y, Z seems natural enough, but for those who only studied say A through D which is sufficient to perform routine calculations, advanced graduate level (lie) group theory looks like so much mental masturbation. Few topics exponentially aquire arcane buzzwords faster than the obscure corners of mathematics, and makes a good topic to ‘baffle em with bullshit’.

[Scrambler Bob]

Octonian

Is that like an Octopus with an Abacus?

[piytar]

Nothing particularly profound about octonions. They’re simply 8 dimensional numbers with 4 real and 4 imaginary dimensions. Just an extension of complex numbers.

[bk1000]

I am fascinated by mathematics, but I completely suck at it. I did pretty good in electronics school with my trusty Hewlett Packard RPN calculator, but I still have to count on my fingers. For some reason, numbers are a struggle for me. I hate it.

[Free in Texas]

Pretty cool article. Takes a little while (for me, anyway) to digest. But the rules governing the Fano Diagram seem to make a weird kind of sense. Or that could be the beer.

[imardmd1]

Sounds exciting. Intellect over emotion.

[EasySt]

These folks need to get together...

https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-chase-moonshine-string-theory-connections-20150312/

[glorgau]

Well, quaternions are used quite a bit for computer graphics...

[Reily]

This is seems to be an extension of Sir William Rowan Hamilton’s quaternions (maybe?). Also Clifford Algebra’s which I know very little about other then the title. Learning something about it (maybe more then the title - Table of Contents...maybe?) is on my retirement “to do list”!

[Macoozie]

Octonions.
Won’t make my car go faster.
Grow my vegetables bigger.
Drop a deer sooner.
Kill an intruder easier.

Octonions. I have no use for them.

(But the gal is Hot!)

[LibWhacker]

Fascinating read. Thanks for posting. Thanks for the ping.