Linear thinking LO22855

Winfried Dressler (winfried.dressler@voith.de)
Tue, 12 Oct 1999 19:17:26 +0200

Replying to LO22836 --

Dear At,

>That comment was meant to you, Leo
>and others who once upon a time had been drilled to say, when
>wakened in the deadly hous of early morning, saying >unconsciously
>"y is equal to m times x plus c"
>when asked
>"what is the formula of a straight line".

Thank you, and yes, I felt somehow personally asked and also embarrassed
that I couldn't find out why you brought the straight, linear line into
the picture. For me, linear algebra is a classical masterpiece of
mathematical art. And I very well remember the Aha! when I realized what
is meant by isomorphism between (physical) content and (mathematical)
form. How many physical content (y, z) can be handled by the same form
(mx+c).

> "Linear thinking is not to see form in content"

I have sent my puzzled asking just before lunch break. On my way home, I
created another perspective on the "change y=mx+c to z=mx+c". Although I
sent it the same day, it just arrived today on the list as LO22824. Now I
recognise that I found examples of "not to see (same) form in (changed)
content". But what I sense as beauty in order of physical diversity (the
ability to aply one mathematical form), turns out to be a devastating
limitation in case of living, conscious, self-aware humans.

Liebe Gruesse

Winfried

-- 

"Winfried Dressler" <winfried.dressler@voith.de>

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>