Wau

Thread Starter

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
Hi everyone,

continuing in a similar fashion to my previous maths post :))) could somebody explain in layman's terms what 'wau' is.

I can across it today and have seen some of the cool stuff it can do, I thought 'wow'.:p

But what is wau? And why does it makes us go 'wow'?

Sparky
 

Thread Starter

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
That was the video I saw.

Wau, a greek letter which looks like an F.

Whilst that video is great to show what wau can do, it doesn't explain what wau is.

Wikipedia's definition makes my head implode.:eek:
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
It is indeed an ancient Greek letter, not used anymore. It is called digamma, as bertus said. I don't know why the girl in the video calls it wau.
 

steveb

Joined Jul 3, 2008
2,436
That's my gut feeling as well,
It is a well done video, and it is creative and educational. The importance of unity is often overlooked. It is a very special number.

The give away for me was when they mentioned wau is equal to exp(2 pi i). Before that point, I wasn't really thinking too deeply because of the speed of the presentation. Then they related it to physics (E=mc^2) which was a huge red flag. Then, I went back (slowly) to every example given and wau=1 works for all cases.

even though I'm the one that always falls for the NPR April Fools jokes.:confused:
Yes, those will be happening soon, and we get some here at AAC too, so watch out. :)
 

studiot

Joined Nov 9, 2007
4,998
For those who find mathematical purity too dry but like the link between maths and physics get hold of a copy of

The Mathematical Mechanic

by Mark Levi

It is fascinating to see his derivation of maths from the basic physics of things

eg

He proves pythagoras by whirling a triangular fish tank around vertex and derives the Gauss-Bonnet theorem from a bicycle wheel.
 
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