Skip to content
Click on cover to enlarge

Cubic Connection

«  page 3 of 3  »

A reclusive amateur geometer who hates numbers receives a visitor

by Siobhan Roberts

Published in the April 2007 issue.  » BUY ISSUE     

          Facebook         Stumble      Get The Walrus on your Blackberry or Windows Mobile        RSS


Odom shook his head. “I don’t like numbers,” he said dismissively.”You don’t like numbers? ” Conway asked, slightly aghast.

“I don’t trust them one little bit. I think they’re negative differentiators.” Conway let that pass, and Odom gladly went on to expound upon the geometric properties of two of his discoveries: one, a compound of ten cubes, and another, interwoven triangles, which Odom said could make a self-supporting structure for a building.

“Geometry is the dynamic,” he concluded.

“I love geometry,” said Conway.

He smiled at Odom across the table, the windowless rectilinear room framing their connection. Odom was obviously anxious to get back to his day, and his social worker was waiting down the hall.

“I was drawn to mathematics because of its beauty,” Odom added.

To which Conway replied, “So was I.”

For more on this and other articles in the April 2007 issue, click here.

Comments

Comment on this article


Will not be displayed on the site

Submit a comment online

Submit a letter to the Editor


    Cancel

The Walrus E-Newsletter

Online exclusives, events, offers:
get news of everything Walrus.