It is maths as youʼve never seen in before – transformed into works of art.
Created by designers Cristian Ilies Vasile and Martin Krzywinski, the stunning images show the number π, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which is approximately equal to 3.14159.
However, the pair decided to transform the number into colourful pieces of art.
First Cristian Ilies Vasile had the idea of connecting each digit of π to its successive digit with links to the position of the numerically corresponding segments, creating beautiful images similar to the Spirograph toys popular in the 1970s.
Martin Krzywinski added to Vasileʼs visualisation ʽby showing the transition probabilities for each digit across bins of 10 digitsʼ to create a whole series of images using 1,000 and 2,000 digits of pi for their data.
ʽArt based on numbers has a beautiful random quality,’ said Krzywinski, who is selling prints of the images via his website.
WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?
- phi – The lower-case letter φ is often used to represent the golden ratio in mathematics, art, and architecture. Two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to their maximum. Many artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio as it is widely thought to be aesthetically pleasing.
- pi – The number π is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.14159
- e – The number e is an important mathematical constant that is the base of the natural logarithm. It is approximately equal to 2.71828 and is the limit of (1 + 1/n)n as n approaches infinity – an expression that arises in the study of compound interest.
