Yes, any polygon is made up of triangles, using the various diagonals to provide additional "sides", and you could attack the problem from that direction. That's not the angle I took, though. (On the other hand, one of the problems I have to deal with is interpreting the geometric meaning of my parameters, and the lengths of sides and diagonals frequently come into play there.)
Does mathematics have to have clear immediate applications to make it "cutting edge"?
No, I was making two separate admissions. On the one hand, this isn't a very active branch of mathematics; certainly it's not an area which attracts the really high-powered mathematicians. On the other (and this is kind of related to the first point), results in this area aren't going to have immediate implications for other branches of mathematics, or for the rest of the world. Its only attractions are aesthetic ones, and rather small-scale ones at that. (Hey, somebody's got to polish the silver, after all...)
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Date: 2004-12-07 02:57 pm (UTC)Does mathematics have to have clear immediate applications to make it "cutting edge"?
No, I was making two separate admissions. On the one hand, this isn't a very active branch of mathematics; certainly it's not an area which attracts the really high-powered mathematicians. On the other (and this is kind of related to the first point), results in this area aren't going to have immediate implications for other branches of mathematics, or for the rest of the world. Its only attractions are aesthetic ones, and rather small-scale ones at that. (Hey, somebody's got to polish the silver, after all...)