The Witch of Agnesi Project

[CalMeacham]

I made up a sweatshirt with this on it, making the design and typeface resemble those for The Blair Witch Project. I even made the geometric construction used for the WoA look like that "hanged man" glyph they used in the Blair Witch logo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Blair_Witch_Project.jpg




http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WitchofAgnesi.html

http://xahlee.org/SpecialPlaneCurves_dir/WitchOfAgnesi_dir/witchOfAgnesi.html



I got ZERO reaction. Nada. Zip. Zilch.


I've worn the shirt to MIT. I've worn it at Science Fiction Conventions. I'm wearing it today at work. Nobody even looks twice (and I may not be able to detect feminine interest, but I can tell when someone's looking at my shirt).





Is this just TOO esoteric? Or do people who know what it's about and see the shirt just think that it's a stupid idea?

[vetbridge]

Is this just TOO esoteric?
For me? Yes. But I learned a little today, which is cool! ;)

When Kill Bill was a brand new movie, I had a friend make me a T-Shirt that read (in a cool font) Wiggle your big toe. About one person in seven thousand got the reference.

[rowrrbazzle]

I have a BS in math, and it never came up in class. I would never have known what it was if I hadn't happened upon it one day in a section of the CRC Handbook.

[Cunctator]

Is this just TOO esoteric?Probably a bit. We studied this curve in maths at school, but I doubt that it's widely known.

[ultrafilter]

Yeah, that one's pretty esoteric.

[bonzer]

Another vote for pretty obscure. I recognised the name in the thread title and am familiar with it as an odd bit of mathematical folklore, but I was never taught anything about it, nor have I ever seen the curve come up anywhere in practice. So not something I'd assume that another mathematically knowledgeable person had necessarily run into.

[The Chao Goes Mu]

I'm not surprised that is sailed right over my head but it is a bit shocking that the folks at M.I.T. didn't pick up on it.


It's pretty clever though. :)