Artists
Yongheng Zhang
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Statement
Teaching the same calculus class for many semesters has presented me with opportunities to listen, reflect, and approach elementary notions repeatedly from multiple perspectives. Once in a while, I develop certain intuition, understanding, and visceral feeling, which are difficult to put into words, but may eventually be crystallized in other forms.
Artworks
Geometry and Algebra Merry-Go-Round
30.0 x 30.0 x 1.25 cm
color prints on vinyl record album
2023
Dot product, cross product, and scalar triple product can be introduced in multivariable calculus from either the geometric or the algebraic vantage point, and then the other meaning is deduced. I sometimes imagine that one writes on a cylindrical blackboard, going from geometry to algebra and from algebra to geometry ad infinitum, as if riding a merry-go-round. The iff statement that cross product exists in and only in dimensions 1, 3, and 7 also fits the ride, and its later shorter proof is comparable to the shift from the geocentric to the simpler heliocentric model of our solar system. A collection of related ideas were projected onto 2D vinyl records and their gatefold jacket, from the 3D blackboards, whose color can also be green.