July 29, 2006
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Big Rock
Thanks to Ars Mathematica, a link to everything2.com:
“In mathematics, a big rock
is a result which is vastly more powerful than is needed to solve the
problem being considered. Often it has a difficult, technical proof whose methods are not related to those of the field in which it is applied. You say ‘I’m going to hit this problem with a big rock.’ Sard’s theorem is a good example of a big rock.”
Another example:Properties of the Monster Group of R. L. Griess, Jr., may be investigated
with the aid of the Miracle Octad Generator, or MOG, of R. T.
Curtis. See the MOG on the cover of a book by Griess about
some of the 20 sporadic groups involved in the Monster:
The MOG, in turn, illustrates (via Abstract 79T-A37, Notices of the American Mathematical Society,
February 1979) the fact that the group of automorphisms of the affine
space of four dimensions over the two-element field is also the natural
group of automorphisms of an arbitrary 4×4 array.This affine group, of order 322,560, is also the natural group of
automorphisms of a family of graphic designs similar to those on
traditional American quilts. (See the diamond theorem.)This top-down approach to the diamond theorem may serve as an illustration of the “big rock” in mathematics.
For a somewhat simpler, bottom-up, approach to the theorem, see Theme and Variations.
For related literary material, see Mathematics and Narrative and The Diamond as Big as the Monster.
“The rock cannot be broken.
It is the truth.”– Wallace Stevens,
“Credences of Summer”
