full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Natalya St. Clair: The unexpected math behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In 2004, using the Hubble spcae Telescope, scientists saw the eddies of a distant cloud of dust and gas around a star, and it reminded them of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." This maittoved sticnsiets from mxieco, Spain and England to study the luminance in Van Gogh's paintings in detail. They dsoreevcid that there is a distinct pattern of turbulent filud structures close to Kolmogorov's equation hidden in many of Van Gogh's paintings.

The researchers digitized the paintings, and measured how brhtgienss varies between any two pixels. From the curves musareed for pixel separations, they concluded that paintings from Van Gogh's period of psychotic agitation bhveae raelmkbray similar to fluid turbulence. His self-portrait with a pipe, from a calmer period in Van Gogh's life, showed no sign of this correspondence. And neither did other artists' work that seemed equally turbulent at first glance, like Munch's "The Scream."

Open Cloze


In 2004, using the Hubble _____ Telescope, scientists saw the eddies of a distant cloud of dust and gas around a star, and it reminded them of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." This _________ __________ from ______, Spain and England to study the luminance in Van Gogh's paintings in detail. They __________ that there is a distinct pattern of turbulent _____ structures close to Kolmogorov's equation hidden in many of Van Gogh's paintings.

The researchers digitized the paintings, and measured how __________ varies between any two pixels. From the curves ________ for pixel separations, they concluded that paintings from Van Gogh's period of psychotic agitation ______ __________ similar to fluid turbulence. His self-portrait with a pipe, from a calmer period in Van Gogh's life, showed no sign of this correspondence. And neither did other artists' work that seemed equally turbulent at first glance, like Munch's "The Scream."

Solution


  1. remarkably
  2. scientists
  3. space
  4. brightness
  5. discovered
  6. mexico
  7. fluid
  8. measured
  9. behave
  10. motivated

Original Text


In 2004, using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists saw the eddies of a distant cloud of dust and gas around a star, and it reminded them of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." This motivated scientists from Mexico, Spain and England to study the luminance in Van Gogh's paintings in detail. They discovered that there is a distinct pattern of turbulent fluid structures close to Kolmogorov's equation hidden in many of Van Gogh's paintings.

The researchers digitized the paintings, and measured how brightness varies between any two pixels. From the curves measured for pixel separations, they concluded that paintings from Van Gogh's period of psychotic agitation behave remarkably similar to fluid turbulence. His self-portrait with a pipe, from a calmer period in Van Gogh's life, showed no sign of this correspondence. And neither did other artists' work that seemed equally turbulent at first glance, like Munch's "The Scream."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
turbulent flow 3
van gogh 3
night sky 2
impressionist works 2
turbulent fluid 2


Important Words


  1. agitation
  2. behave
  3. brightness
  4. calmer
  5. close
  6. cloud
  7. concluded
  8. correspondence
  9. curves
  10. detail
  11. digitized
  12. discovered
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  14. distinct
  15. dust
  16. eddies
  17. england
  18. equally
  19. equation
  20. fluid
  21. gas
  22. glance
  23. hidden
  24. hubble
  25. life
  26. luminance
  27. measured
  28. mexico
  29. motivated
  30. night
  31. paintings
  32. pattern
  33. period
  34. pipe
  35. pixel
  36. pixels
  37. psychotic
  38. remarkably
  39. reminded
  40. researchers
  41. scientists
  42. scream
  43. separations
  44. showed
  45. sign
  46. similar
  47. space
  48. spain
  49. star
  50. structures
  51. study
  52. telescope
  53. turbulence
  54. turbulent
  55. van
  56. varies
  57. work