Artists
David Richeson
Professor of Mathematics and the John J. & Ann Curley Faculty Chair in the Liberal Arts
Dickinson College
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA
Statement
As an educator, I strive to bring mathematics' beauty, logic, applicability, and wonder to my students and the public. I do this through my teaching, research, writing, and speaking. I have always been interested in using mathematics to create and describe artistic objects, but it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic that I saw that mathematical art could have therapeutic value. I realized this interest was an untapped way to share my love of mathematics with wider audiences and a new way for me to explore mathematics.
Artworks
The Heart of Mathematics
45.0 x 15.0 x 1.25 cm
Digital print on metal
2024
The heart-shaped cardioid is one of the most beloved curves in mathematics. It appears at the bottom of your coffee cup, in the Mandelbrot set, in string art, in the design of microphones, and in certain drawbridges. Its mathematical properties are fascinating, surprising, deep, and wide reaching. Understanding these properties requires a broad mathematical toolkit—geometry, algebra, analytic geometry, calculus, trigonometry, abstract algebra, complex dynamics, and more. This piece illustrates three ways to produce a cardioid: as an envelope of circles, an epicycloid, and an envelope of lines.