TITLE: Ode to Pythagoras
NAME: MaryAnn Mandell
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: MMandl@aol.com
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/6588/povfind.htm
TOPIC: Math & Physics
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: ode.jpg
ZIPFILE: ode.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV for Windows

TOOLS USED: 
    Moray, LParser and PSP

RENDER TIME: 
    4 hrs.

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium 200

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


I remember the first day of Physics class and there was a problem about a ship
and we were supposed to figure out its path and direction. As I sank lower in
my seat in total ignorance, the teacher mentioned that it could be solved using
the Pythagorean Theorem. Well, at least I knew that and I felt a little better.
So when this subject came up for the IRTC, I decided to do an ode to
Pythagoras.(560-480 B.C.)

He lived in Greece, became a political dissident and moved to Italy where he
formed a commune of like minded people and set about defining the world
according to mathematical relationships.

We all know about his theorem. He didn't invent it, he just proved it. The scene
shows a partial proof drawn in the sand in the court yard of his commune. He
also demonstrated the relationship between music and math, hence the lyre and
pan pipes. The daytime moon is there to indicate the fact that he was one of
the first to work out the harmonic movement of all heavenly bodies around a
central fire.(His work in this area influenced Plato, Ptolemy and Copernicus)

The ship is the vehicle for disseminating his ideas and the pottery is for his
communal lifestyle.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


I used Moray for the modeling and lathing, and Moray's texture editor to create
the textures and place the image maps.

The ship's hull and sail are made from bezier patches and is modeled after ones
I found during my web research. The so called "evil eye" on the bow is an image
map created with PSP and was often found on Greek ships.

I lathed the pottery using shapes of Greek pottery made during that time. The
prized red and black pottery were not used for common household tasks.

The lyre was modeled from a black and white photo of an Greek lyre on the
British Museum site. The description mentions that the sound box was made from
a turtle shell and that it had 7 strings made of gut.

A "reverse" height field" was used to show the partial proof of the theorem. I
found a 9th  century A.D. manuscript on the Vatican library site. It is written
in Greek and is a copy of Eculid's (325-270 B.C.) writing on the subject.
(Pythagoras never wrote it down). I used PSP to create something I could use as
a height field. Then I took a difference from the ground. 

The tree was created using LParser. It is based on a basic Pythagoras Tree (what
else) that I modified and then added the leaves.