Welcome to the Autumn 2002 issue of the Nexus Network Journal!

The Summer 2002 issue of the NNJ was dedicated to the Nexus 2002 conference. Vesna Petresin and Laurent-Paul Robert of Ljubljana, Slovenia, were to have presented a paper at the special session on computer technology of the conference, but were unfortunately unable to attend. So it is my special pleasure to be able to publish their paper in this issue of the NNJ. The Double Moebius Strip Studies is a fantastic voyage into the world of the famous one-sided form, with a special look at its possible relationships to architecture. You'll enjoy the computer animations that accompany the article.

Marie-Thérèse Zenner was a presenter at the Nexus 2002 conference. Her latest research in the field of medieval architecture and science is published here in Villard de Honnecourt and Euclidian Geometry. This is an English translation with additional material of her new article for a special issue of Pour les Science (the French edition of Scientific American) dedicated to science in the middle ages (October 2002). Dr. Zenner, who is also the contributing editor for medieval studies to the NNJ, has just inserted an addendum to the abstract of her presentation that published in the NNJ last issue. This clarifies her working methods and some of her assertions in the paper published in Nexus IV: Architecture and Mathematics.

Harrison Eiteljorg, II, addresses what is always an important and pertinent issue for architecture and mathematics. In How Should We Measure an Ancient Structure? he addresses the issues of precision in architecture, previously raised in an article by Costantino Caciagli. Dr. Eiteljorg is certainly in a postion to understand the subject from his own experience, for he is editor in chief of the CSA newsletter, an electronic newsletter that specializes in computer tools for archaeologists and architecture historians.

A NNJ reader brought my attention to a recent discussion on the electronic listserv [HM] Historia Mathematica, maintained by Julio Gonzalez Cabillon. The thread concerned a quote by Richard W. Hamming concerning whether "the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether, say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference?" The issue is one of whether the fine points of mathematical analysis are relevant or not to engineering (and architectural) considerations. Principle contributors to the most significant parts of the thread were Martin Davis and Matt Insall, and the discussion, Mathematics and Design: Yes, But Will it Fly?, is reproduced here by courteous permission of Julio Gonzalez Cabillon. This is not one of our usual peer-reviewed contributions, but I feel that this is a significant, intriguing issue for our readers and would welcome further comments.

Geometer Marcus the Marinite of the Geometer's Angle has not let us down in this new issue. His latest column is Four Approximations for Finding the Golden Section of a Circle's Circumference from the Square Root Two Rectangle.

For the Didactics column, Michael Serra, author of the new Discovering Geometry: An Inductive Approach, describes a fun, creative project for teaching secondary level (high school) students about the mathematical properties of arches. In the pictures that illustrate Ertha Diggs and the Ancient Stone Arch Mystery, you can see the joy on these students' faces as they learn mathematics.

This new issue features reviews of four books: Vermeer's Camera: The Truth Behind the Masterpieces by Philip Steadman and Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters by David Hockney, reviewed by David Vila Domini; The Monumental Impulse: Architecture's Biological Roots by George Hershey, reviewed by Michael J. Ostwald; and  Connections : the Geometric Bridge between Art and Science by Jay Kappraff, reviewed by Slavik Jablan.

We are always trying to stay up-to-date at the NNJ. We have updated our Submissions Guidelines. One of the innovations that we are making concerns the use of keywords in archiving and searching for papers published in our journal. Steve Wassell, frequent collaborator on the NNJ and guest editor of the Winter 2002 issue dedicated to the Golden Section contributed a list of mathematical keywords for the journal.

Other of our regular archive pages, including the Virtual Library, have been updated for this new issue as well.

I hope that you enjoy the new issue of the NNJ. If you are not already on the free mailing list to receive announcements and updates about the NNJ and the Nexus conferences and books, take a moment to sign up automatically on our homepage.

Copyright ©2002 Kim Williams