Medieval Mosque Shows Amazing Math Discovery

Discover Magazine ^ | 01.09.2008 | John Bohannon

[DoughtyOne]

Yep, Muslim scholars that coudln’t crack the molestation code, are none the less the world’s most brilliant mathmetitians. 72 Wirgins and all, color me skeptical...

My guess is that mosaic mistakes do happen. Deal with it.

[SIRTRIS]

Correct! One data point(mosque) does not make a trend!

[bobsatwork]

.....Most of the patterns examined failed the test, but one passed..... And the only one that passed, FAILED, with "11 tiny flaws". Try handing in a math thesis with "only" 11 flaws. So this astonishing discovery DOES NOT EXIST in ANY example. HOW DOES THIS CRAP GET PUBLISHED???

[Maceman]

Muslim scholars made a geometric breakthrough 500 years before mathematicians in the West.

Fat lotta good it did them. How many patents do Muslim nations account for?

What have they done for us lately?

[SnarlinCubBear]

Correction, a snarlincubear reporter at the time. :)

[weegee]

Man has learned to brew beer a number of times (and forgotten how at times too). Discoveries are not always “unique” and the information is not always put to use.

The academic world looks for any excuse to champion the muslim world these days and the media loves hyperbole (first, best, etc.). Right now at our local art museum there is an exhibit of korans. I don’t see the historians of art and science to be so proud of the work of Christians. The History Channel likes to point out how the Christian establishment tried to ‘hold back’ scientific discoveries.

[weegee]

maybe the Nobel prize should be awarded to new explosive technologies...

[jiggyboy]

I wonder if this is like the Bible Codes and that sort of thing - if you look for patterns you eventually find them - and then you explain away any discrepancies when they don’t fit your theory.

I'm inclined to believe the story and the implications as presented. The characteristics of the tiles can be mathematically proven or disproven to be something that is not geometrically regular. That's not the same as throwing enough of them together to eventually find any kind of picture you want.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“this particular one randomly happened to have an interesting property.”
Bingo! These two “scholars” need to get a life! What a waste of time,,,,,,,,

[Calvin Locke]

Besides, you don’t get credit for a discovery in math unless it’s accompanied by a proof.

A few years ago, the media elite were trying to credit an African tribe(s) with the "discovery" of geometric fractals, because some fractal-like patterns were spotted in tribal weavings.

[denydenydeny]

Among the 3,700 tiles Lu and Steinhardt mapped, there are only 11 tiny flaws, tiles placed in the wrong orientation.

Just as with global warming, when "science" has an agenda, it can always find ways to ignore inconvenient details.

[Alouette]

Do they mention that almost all of the artisans who created this tilework were Christians?

[null and void]

There is no record that any Muslim even noticed this pattern as being extraordinary in any way other than its attractiveness or that it had any mathematical import.

Bingo.

Even a one-eyed mullah will occasionally find hees nuts...

[Slicksadick]

[SlowBoat407]

What has islam done for us lately?

[jiggyboy]

looking for a non-repeating series is hard

Oops I meant to include this in my previous post. The decimal representation for "pi" is a decimal that does not repeat, and as mathematical proofs go, it's an easy one.

A rough explanation (not a proof):

pi = 4 * (1/1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 ...)

Its denominator is made up of every fraction added together, which means you can't express it simply as one finite integer divided by another finite integer.

Similarly, Roger Penrose proved mathematically that a certain number of different shapes, each of a certain geometry, can not fit together in a repeating pattern like very complicated squares or hexagons, and he proved that there can be as few as two different shapes. He didn't have to draw out a million of them.

[aruanan]

A study of patterns in 12th- to 17th-century mosaics suggests that Muslim scholars made a geometric breakthrough 500 years before mathematicians in the West.

More accurately: A study of patterns in 12th- to 17th-century mosaics suggests that scholars of non-Muslim nations conquered by Muslims that had not yet been destroyed by the inevitable decline that always followed such conquests made a geometric breakthrough 500 years before mathematicians in the West.

Any thoughtful person who knows history and religion would be anti-Islam. Along with Communism, Naziism, and the Black Death, Islam has been responsible for more death and destruction on the face of the planet than just about anything else since the last asteroid impact. Islam was started by predators. It has spread by predation. It has lived off the decaying corpses of the civilizations it has destroyed. It is a vast, ancient sea of corruption, oppression, fanaticism, and ignorance lapping up against the shores of the present, kept alive by the fortuitous accident of living above huge reserves of petroleum.

[yankeedame]

The History Channel likes to point out how the Christian establishment tried to ‘hold back’ scientific discoveries.

Indeed? If that's the case than the History Channel will have no trouble listing, side by side, those European universities/colleges founded and maintained by the Christian establishment from, say, 1050 a.d. to 1600 a.d., verse those universities/colleges in the Middle East founded and maintained by the Muslim establishment over the same time period.

[mo]

“The academic world looks for any excuse....”

BINGO!! lookin’ for Mooslim grant monies......

[MrB]

Yeah, that was my first thought -

who did they steal this from?