I'm sure I'd never seen the word "surd" before I read it today in a quote attributed to Robert Smithson (concerning his Alogon sculptures).
surd: 1. a sum containing one or more irrational numbers. 2. A voiceless sound in speech. Latin surdus, deaf, mute; used in mathematics to translate Arabic jadhr asamm [deaf root], itself a translation of the Greek alogos, speechless, irrational.It's also the name for the k, p, s, and t consonants (the ones that don't involve the vocal chords). Hell of a word. Posted by Kriston at June 24, 2006 4:36 PM
Reminds me of a poem by (iirc) Edgar Allen Poe:
What are such things to me
whose life is full of indices and surds?
x squared plus seven x plus fifty three
equals eleven thirds!
(This looks better in math notation)
I think that I have never heard
A sound as lovely as a surd
I was a math major in college. I knew all about definition 1, but #2 is new to me.
Posted by: Charles Kuffner at June 25, 2006 11:09 AMIt's by Lewis Carroll. (And the whole thing is much longer.)
Posted by: ben wolfson at June 25, 2006 6:42 PM