Replying to LO27891 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl> writes:
>What I have understood from the contributions of all
>of you on the subject " holism, a product" , but
>particularly of Don Dwiggens and At de Lange is
>that my expression ' balance' is too narrow, not to say
>too unique.
Greetings dear Leo,
Perhaps my aversion to "balance" comes from long ago in the training of
chemistry and physics to me. In physics the concept of "balanced" forces
was taken to the extreme. In chemistry it also happened, but here in terms
of the "equilibrium" state. It took me a long time to learn that chemistry
is much more than the "equilibrium" state. It is the "harmonising" of
chemical reactions (a kind of "becomings") of which the equilibrium state
is but one of its possible outcomes. It is in living soils where I had to
learn the hard way that there almost never an equilibrium state is
reached.
>Let us try to compose a complex balance. I have
>tried to sketch one in Fig. 6. No, dear readers, it
>is not the usual organogram of an organisation, but
>it is a special balance, a so-called mobile.
(snip)
>If you pull on weight 1 the whole mobile starts
>moving and becomes in unbalance.
Leo, thank you for this beautiful model.
If you now carefully look at weight 1 moving in harmony with the rest of
the mobile, it will trace the most wonderful figures. Here in our
Discovery Centre we have a setup with such coupled balances in which the
ratio of the weights can be altered. A pen then register the intricate
movements on paper.
Sometimes, when a school with many pupils visit the Centre, I have to help
out because they can become more than a handful. The setup of coupled
balances is my favourate. I will begin to show the pupils what wonderful
figures the pen traces when the weights follow the Fibonacci series. The
children will then become very excited. Every child will want a drawing.
Some will ask me who made this incredible intelligent machine. When I tell
them that it was a French man some 200 years ago, they will invariable
say: "He must have been a genius". When I tell them that nature is the
real genius here, they stare at me with a puzzeld look. I will then tell
them "Look at the machine as part of nature. Its doing its job without our
intervention." They will begin to smile again. I will then on purpose pull
one of the weights. Suddenly it stops making the old pattern, begining
with a completely new one which I do not allow it to finish. When they see
both unfinished patterns with completely different harmonies, their faces
turn into disgust. I leave that drawing so that anyone who wants it, can
take it. Up to now not even one has been taken.
If I can find a scanner, I will make a few of these drawings and email
them to Rick to archive them for us so that you can share in the
excitement of the children. It is a pity that you will see only the
outcome or "being". It is the actual hamonius "becoming" which mesmerises
the children.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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