χle Ormsby
@motivickyle.bsky.social
Numbers and shapes at Reed College. Mathematician, parent, spouse, runner, 𝔣𝔯𝔞𝔨𝔱𝔲𝔯 enthusiast. He or they.
Reposted by χle Ormsby
This is how the cool topologists draw their tori
December 8, 2025 at 7:31 PM
This is how the cool topologists draw their tori
They are overserving me at Sterling Coffee with a Mexican drip and natural processed Ethiopian espresso.
December 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
They are overserving me at Sterling Coffee with a Mexican drip and natural processed Ethiopian espresso.
lol is there a less hideous way to implement Taylor polynomials in desmos? www.desmos.com/calculator/u...
Taylor polynomials
www.desmos.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:50 PM
lol is there a less hideous way to implement Taylor polynomials in desmos? www.desmos.com/calculator/u...
I regret to inform you that the human species does not yet know why ice is slippery. www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-ice-s...
December 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
I regret to inform you that the human species does not yet know why ice is slippery. www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-ice-s...
Reposted by χle Ormsby
It's always been a different Stevens for me.
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45235/...
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45235/...
December 7, 2025 at 9:05 PM
It's always been a different Stevens for me.
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45235/...
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45235/...
Reposted by χle Ormsby
Free for MAA and AMS members! Not a member and don't have $15? The MathTech.org team can help - email steven@clontz.org to learn more.
MAA workshop on accessible course materials with @mitchkeller.phd and @oscarlevin.com! Free for AMS and MAA members. events.zoom.us/ev/AjygoFh_y...
Accessible course materials: a practical guide
events.zoom.us
December 7, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Free for MAA and AMS members! Not a member and don't have $15? The MathTech.org team can help - email steven@clontz.org to learn more.
We must endure our thoughts all night, until
The bright obvious stands motionless in cold.
poets.org/poem/man-car...
The bright obvious stands motionless in cold.
poets.org/poem/man-car...
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 7, 2025 at 8:49 PM
We must endure our thoughts all night, until
The bright obvious stands motionless in cold.
poets.org/poem/man-car...
The bright obvious stands motionless in cold.
poets.org/poem/man-car...
MAA workshop on accessible course materials with @mitchkeller.phd and @oscarlevin.com! Free for AMS and MAA members. events.zoom.us/ev/AjygoFh_y...
Accessible course materials: a practical guide
events.zoom.us
December 7, 2025 at 8:18 PM
MAA workshop on accessible course materials with @mitchkeller.phd and @oscarlevin.com! Free for AMS and MAA members. events.zoom.us/ev/AjygoFh_y...
Reposted by χle Ormsby
I've never been interested in solving precisely stated hard problems. To me, the interesting part of math is finding beautiful structures that help us understand reality better - and clearly explaining them, so more people can use them.
If AI can ever do that, I'll enjoy talking to it.
(2/n)
If AI can ever do that, I'll enjoy talking to it.
(2/n)
December 7, 2025 at 10:45 AM
I've never been interested in solving precisely stated hard problems. To me, the interesting part of math is finding beautiful structures that help us understand reality better - and clearly explaining them, so more people can use them.
If AI can ever do that, I'll enjoy talking to it.
(2/n)
If AI can ever do that, I'll enjoy talking to it.
(2/n)
Hell yeah Ursula K LeGuin exhibit at Oregon Contemporary.
December 6, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Hell yeah Ursula K LeGuin exhibit at Oregon Contemporary.
Is "Mane Attraction" a better name for a horse, or a hair salon?
December 6, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Is "Mane Attraction" a better name for a horse, or a hair salon?
Reposted by χle Ormsby
Indefinite Hyperbolic Numerals
forty-leven
squillion
umpteen
steen
umpty
umpty-ump
umpty-steen
zillion
skillion
jillion
gillion
bazillion
umptillion
kazillion
gazillion
kajillion
gajillion
bajillion
Collected by Stephen Chrisomalis
www.futilitycloset.com/2025/12/05/e...
forty-leven
squillion
umpteen
steen
umpty
umpty-ump
umpty-steen
zillion
skillion
jillion
gillion
bazillion
umptillion
kazillion
gazillion
kajillion
gajillion
bajillion
Collected by Stephen Chrisomalis
www.futilitycloset.com/2025/12/05/e...
Extra Large - Futility Closet
Which is bigger, a jillion or a zillion? No one’s quite sure, though we all use these terms pretty readily. In 2016 Wayne State University linguistic anthropologist Stephen Chrisomalis cataloged the f...
www.futilitycloset.com
December 6, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Indefinite Hyperbolic Numerals
forty-leven
squillion
umpteen
steen
umpty
umpty-ump
umpty-steen
zillion
skillion
jillion
gillion
bazillion
umptillion
kazillion
gazillion
kajillion
gajillion
bajillion
Collected by Stephen Chrisomalis
www.futilitycloset.com/2025/12/05/e...
forty-leven
squillion
umpteen
steen
umpty
umpty-ump
umpty-steen
zillion
skillion
jillion
gillion
bazillion
umptillion
kazillion
gazillion
kajillion
gajillion
bajillion
Collected by Stephen Chrisomalis
www.futilitycloset.com/2025/12/05/e...
People are posting positive male role models and I'd like to nominate Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, but he didn't even set his Oompa-Loompa slaves free in his last will and testament, so I can't.
December 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
People are posting positive male role models and I'd like to nominate Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, but he didn't even set his Oompa-Loompa slaves free in his last will and testament, so I can't.
This diagram should win some kind of prize for mathematical illustration. From arxiv.org/abs/2305.08471. 🧮
![Figure 6. The quotientope lattice for n = 4: all quotientopes ordered by inclusion (which corresponds to refinement of the lattice congruences). We only consider lattice congruences whose fan
is essential. We have highlighted the cube (green), Loday’s associahedron [Lod04] (blue), another
one of Hohlweg–Lange’s associahedra [HL07] (purple), the diagonal rectangulation polytope [LR12]
(orange), and the permutahedron (red). Adapted from [PS19, Fig. 9].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ysaiuavm2f7d4th42c4valhw/bafkreihhvpykoeyxb23bilkfhitiivpaitjc5ueb22r3lqu4y57gt7calm@jpeg)
December 5, 2025 at 10:27 PM
This diagram should win some kind of prize for mathematical illustration. From arxiv.org/abs/2305.08471. 🧮
Ten Thousand Years of Solitude
@zachweinersmith.bsky.social poses a fun activity: add “hundred” to a book title.
A Tale of Two Hundred Cities
Lord of the Hundred Flies
The Hundred Brothers Karamazov
A Hundred Hundred Years of Solitude
www.smbc-comics.com
A Tale of Two Hundred Cities
Lord of the Hundred Flies
The Hundred Brothers Karamazov
A Hundred Hundred Years of Solitude
www.smbc-comics.com
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Hundred
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Hundred
www.smbc-comics.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Ten Thousand Years of Solitude
um... my math-art collaboration just received a $30k grant? 😮
December 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
um... my math-art collaboration just received a $30k grant? 😮
Whenever we encounter donation requests from well-funded institutions I've already paid for services (looking at you, University of Chicago), my son and I enact Shevek's imitation of a "beggarman" from The Dispossessed: "Money... give me money...!"
December 5, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Whenever we encounter donation requests from well-funded institutions I've already paid for services (looking at you, University of Chicago), my son and I enact Shevek's imitation of a "beggarman" from The Dispossessed: "Money... give me money...!"
Reposted by χle Ormsby
y'all I was approved for extra time accommodations today and it was super easy! I just lived with undiagnosed ADHD for 30 years, dropped out of school twice, suffered a lot of academic trauma, spent untold amounts on mental health treatment, and then took 16 months to fill out the paperwork!
December 5, 2025 at 3:51 PM
y'all I was approved for extra time accommodations today and it was super easy! I just lived with undiagnosed ADHD for 30 years, dropped out of school twice, suffered a lot of academic trauma, spent untold amounts on mental health treatment, and then took 16 months to fill out the paperwork!
Reposted by χle Ormsby
I'd rather say
"The group of all rotations of a ball in space, known to mathematicians as SO(3), is itself a ball with each point on its surface glued to the opposite point."
If you're gonna scare people, I feel you might as well scare them with a puzzle they can actually chew on.
(5/n)
"The group of all rotations of a ball in space, known to mathematicians as SO(3), is itself a ball with each point on its surface glued to the opposite point."
If you're gonna scare people, I feel you might as well scare them with a puzzle they can actually chew on.
(5/n)
December 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I'd rather say
"The group of all rotations of a ball in space, known to mathematicians as SO(3), is itself a ball with each point on its surface glued to the opposite point."
If you're gonna scare people, I feel you might as well scare them with a puzzle they can actually chew on.
(5/n)
"The group of all rotations of a ball in space, known to mathematicians as SO(3), is itself a ball with each point on its surface glued to the opposite point."
If you're gonna scare people, I feel you might as well scare them with a puzzle they can actually chew on.
(5/n)
After staring at this plot for too long, I have convinced myself that
log(x) = lim_{m→0} (xᵐ-1)/m
is not such a bad definition of the natural logarithm. www.desmos.com/calculator/b...
log(x) = lim_{m→0} (xᵐ-1)/m
is not such a bad definition of the natural logarithm. www.desmos.com/calculator/b...
December 5, 2025 at 3:01 PM
After staring at this plot for too long, I have convinced myself that
log(x) = lim_{m→0} (xᵐ-1)/m
is not such a bad definition of the natural logarithm. www.desmos.com/calculator/b...
log(x) = lim_{m→0} (xᵐ-1)/m
is not such a bad definition of the natural logarithm. www.desmos.com/calculator/b...
Reposted by χle Ormsby
I would kill for this.
December 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I would kill for this.
The negative of G is H because GH is (often) silent.
last night my daughter asked whether there were negative letters, like negative numbers. what a good fuckin question
December 5, 2025 at 3:22 AM
The negative of G is H because GH is (often) silent.
Just splurged on a huge air fryer / toaster oven / dehydrator. What should I air fry first?
December 5, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Just splurged on a huge air fryer / toaster oven / dehydrator. What should I air fry first?
Reposted by χle Ormsby
“Is this some sort of divine creation by the mathematical gods, or is there a deeper
reason why 𝑀𝑔 exists?”
Charming images from this article by Jarod Alper
www.ams.org/journals/not...
reason why 𝑀𝑔 exists?”
Charming images from this article by Jarod Alper
www.ams.org/journals/not...
December 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM
“Is this some sort of divine creation by the mathematical gods, or is there a deeper
reason why 𝑀𝑔 exists?”
Charming images from this article by Jarod Alper
www.ams.org/journals/not...
reason why 𝑀𝑔 exists?”
Charming images from this article by Jarod Alper
www.ams.org/journals/not...