Conformal Mappings
By Steven Krantz
Imaginary numbers are not figments, complex numbers are not difficult, but with such "imaginative mathematics," one can map irregular surfaces precisely
This Article From Issue
September-October 1999
Volume 87, Number 5
Page 436
DOI: 10.1511/1999.36.436
As the Decade of the Brain comes to a close, neurologists are confronting a vexing problem. They would like to be able to unfold the brain's complicated geometry of bulges and folds into a simple, flat map of the brain's surface—but there is no perfect way to do it. It is the same problem that mapmakers have struggled with ever since they realized the earth was round.
Images courtesy of Monica Hurdal and DeWitt Sumners, FSU, and Kelly Rehm, University of Minnesota.
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