Gresham College, Wellcome Collection, https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/YW011977M Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Loft of Casa Batlló, designed by Antoni Gaudí, image by Francois Lagunas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Batll%C3%B3 Wren’s solution of Kepler’s problem manages to relate the areas into which the semicircle must be divided to lengths of specific circle arcs. These are then equated to carefully positioned “stretched” or “prolate” cycloids – which of course Wren already knew how to find the length of, from his own earlier work. And so he was able to solve Kepler’s problem. His solution was published by John Wallis in a 1659 treatise on the cycloid (which also included Wren’s rectification of the cycloid). If your Latin is tip-top, you can give it a read: John Wallis: Tractatus duo, prior de cycloide et corporibus inde genetis: posterior, epistolaris in qua agitur de cissoide. In a 1668 letter, the English mathematician John Wallis said that although the challenge of Kepler’s problem had been issued to the French mathematicians almost a decade previously, “there is none of them have yet (that I hear of) returned any solution”. Take that, Jean de Montfort! Allan H Brooks/ New Control Tower Newcastle Airport/Image use permitted under CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newcastle_International_Airport_Control_Tower.jpg

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At the beginning of the nineteenth century, communication was slow, even relatively short journeys were uncertain and time-consuming, and people were dependant on the forces of nature for energy; this lecture charts the development of new modes of communication, from the railway to the radio, the telegraph to the telephone, the steamship to the motor-car and examines their efforts on perceptions of time and space. Discover what we did with personalities, brands and events since the 90's. A lot of stories and interesting facts..

Yet it seems indisputable that 'Victorian' has come to stand for a particular set of values, perceptions and experiences. On the other hand, historians are deeply divided about what these were. Certainly as G. M. Trevelyan remarked half a century ago, referring obliquely to Lytton Strachey's debunking of these values: 'The period of reaction against the nineteenth century is over; the era of dispassionate historical valuation of it has begun.' And, he added, perhaps as a warning: 'the ideas and beliefs of the Victorian era...were various and mutually contradictory, and cannot be brought together under one or two glib generalizations'.The Genesis GI Features a hybrid Steel and Aluminium Exo frame chassis which embodies the exposed skeleton custom automatic movement with self-winding mechanism. The case is seamlessly integrated on a custom designed high density rubber strap. Discover our creation & achievements in a short story. Enter in our universe and become a member of the tribe. All logarithmic spirals are self-similar, in that they retain precisely the same shape as they grow. In nature, if we think of how plants and animals grow, if they are growing out from a central point at a fixed rate, as happens with something like a Nautilus shell, then the outer parts continue to grow while they expand out from the centre. Logarithmic spirals allow for this to happen while keeping the same shape. The spiraling makes room for new growth. The three-dimensional version of a logarithmic spiral that Wren studied is just the right solution for shells, and is achieved in nature by one side of the structure growing at a faster rate than another. By varying the parameters in the general equation for a solid logarithmic spiral, many different shell-like shapes can be created. Wren’s ideas continue to inspire. In 2021, a team at Monash University came up with a “power cone” construction generalizing the cone-to-spiral idea (and Wren is referenced extensively in their article) that gives a mathematical basis for the formation of animal teeth, horns, claws, beaks and other sharp structures.