Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] Neal Stephenson's "Anathem"

  • FromMarc Hartstein <marc.hartstein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateWed, 03 Sep 2008 20:28:01 -0400
Excerpts from Fred J Poutre's message of Wed Sep 03 11:07:01 -0400 2008:
> I think that was a tetrahedron, not a pyramid. 
> You can only see on side, with out seeing any of the connecting sides.
> Because all sides are acute angles on a tetrahedron, when looking
> directly at a single face, you can not see the other faces.
> Pyramids with their 90 degree interface on the base, are at a 90 degree
> on the sides. Meaning that you can normally see at least one of the
> connecting sides, when looking directly at a single face.
> Hard to tell though.

Actually, I see a second face to the (viewer's) left of the easy-to-see
one.  You can mostly identify it by the reflected finger.  The angle of
those two faces is unclear to me.

*However*, I think I also made out the base of the pyramid, and it did
look triangular rather than square to me.  I currently tentatively agree
with your conclusion that this is not quite a Martian pyramid, although
it bears a definite resemblance in the ratio of base to height.

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