Regularity
From Maze
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= The Grid: Regularity in Space = | = The Grid: Regularity in Space = | ||
| − | The grid provides a base framework that human intuition and invention can operate within and subvert. Within the chaos of nature, regular patterns provided a contrast and promise of order. From early patterns on pottery to geometric mosaics in Roman baths, we've long used grids to enhance our lives through decoration. In Islamic culture, the focus on mathematics and prohibition on representational images led to the most advanced grid systems to date that were used to decorate architecture and religious texts. Grids have also long been used as the basis for architecture and urban planning. For example, its not possible to imagine New York, the one-time city of the future, without the regular grid of upper Manhattan. (Also, it's important to mention that Broadway breaks the grid to form many of the cities best public spaces.) The grid is also the basis for our most intellectual play, from chess to go. | + | The grid provides a base framework that human intuition and invention can operate within and subvert. Within the chaos of nature, regular patterns provided a contrast and promise of order. From early patterns on pottery to geometric mosaics in Roman baths, we've long used grids to enhance our lives through decoration. In Islamic culture, the focus on mathematics and prohibition on representational images led to the most advanced grid systems to date that were used to decorate architecture and religious texts. Grids have also long been used as the basis for architecture and urban planning. For example, its not possible to imagine New York, the one-time city of the future, without the regular grid of upper Manhattan. (Also, it's important to mention that Broadway breaks the grid to form many of the cities best public spaces.) The grid is also the basis for our most intellectual play, from chess to go. |
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| + | As you might guess, the grid has proved essential to the design of computers from the grid of vacuum tubes on the ENIAC (1946) to the latest server farms that feed data to the internet. A new era of more reliable computing was spawned by a grid of ferrite rings called core memory. This technology worked by addressing each ring on the grid to set its charge to clockwise or counterclockwise to store one bit for information. Because the information is stored as a magnetic force, it maintains its state with or without power. | ||
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