E8 Root System

Today’s Math-Art is the visualisation of the E8 root system. What the heck is an E8 root system? Good question. E8 is a 248 dimensional Lie algebra. I’d be lying to you if I told you I understood what that meant, but maybe that’s why it’s called the Lie algebra, eh?

The E8 system is obviously complex. In its infininite complexity, there is strangely art to be found and to be enjoyed. The E8 visualisation in today’s Math-Art is generated by John Stembridge, who based his computer generation code on a hand-drawn E8 system by Peter McMullen in the 1960s.

In John’s website, he explains Coxeter Planes (named after H.S.M Coxeter, who met and influenced M.C. Escher a lot). Complex as it is, it still shows that math and art, do have lots in common.

If you’re up for more mind boggling stuff, check out A. Garrett Lisi’s An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything (which is anything but Exceptionally Simple). It’s been getting a lot of publicity lately, and you’d probably have read it if you subscribed to the New Scientist Magazine.

But if you’re like me and don’t understand a single thing (yes, I do subscribe to NSM), you can just sit back, and enjoy the art. Or if you have some basics in particle physics and are interested in the ToE, then watch this video. It simplifies the worded explanations in Lisi’s paper.

Additional Resources: What’s this E8 Stuff All About Part I, Part II, Part III