Unlock the Mystery of the Monkey Saddle

[DiracPool]

My favorite new geographical shape is now, drum role please...the Monkey Saddle.

When I looked at it initially, I thought right away I knew why it was called a Monkey Saddle. The shape (to me) just kind of looks like a monkey. Particularly, you can see the two ears on the side. The downward sloping concavity looks like a monkey snout, and the upward concavity looks like a monkey forehead.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Monkey_Saddle_Surface_(Shaded).png

Then... as I was doing more research on my recent favorite geometrical object, I found that the monkey saddle moniker got it's name because the monkey has a "tail" and that, what I thought were the ears were actually where the monkey's legs go, and the downward facing concavity was where the tail settled on.

That makes sense, especially because the word "saddle" is in the moniker, but I have to say I am still partial to the interpretation that the shape looks like a monkey's face.

I would like to get your opinion, which interpretation do you like better? The "face" or the "tail" interpretation?

 

[phinds]

I don't see either one. Just a small cutout of a hyperboloid

 

[DiracPool]

I don't see either one. Just a small cutout of a hyperboloid

Hmmmm

 

[lisab]

I pictured it like this:

I mean, you have to leave room for the tail.

 

[DiracPool]

Lol. Lisa. Ok, we got one for the "tail" interpretation with an impressive visual, I must say.

However, My vote still counts, and I voted for the "face" interpretation, so we need a tie breaker.

 

[leroyjenkens]

I'm having extreme difficulty picturing a monkey's face, but it takes no effort for me to picture a monkey sitting on it.
If it were oriented in any direction, I could picture a monkey sitting on it, but it seems to me it would have to be oriented in a specific direction for you to be able to make out a monkey's face. I see every reason to call it a 'monkey saddle' instead of a 'monkey face.'

 

[DiracPool]

I'm having extreme difficulty picturing a monkey's face, but it takes no effort for me to picture a monkey sitting on it.
If it were oriented in any direction, I could picture a monkey sitting on it, but it seems to me it would have to be oriented in a specific direction for you to be able to make out a monkey's face. I see every reason to call it a 'monkey saddle' instead of a 'monkey face.'

Ok, fair enough, two votes for the saddle, and one for the face, but, c'mon, you have to admit...

 

[256bits]

I don't see a monkey.

I saw an analysis of this

into a better this

 

[DiracPool]

I don't see a monkey.

I saw an analysis of this

Lol. I wasn't expecting to have to create a third category

 

[phinds]

Ok, fair enough, two votes for the saddle, and one for the face, but, c'mon, you have to admit...

You have a seriously deranged imagination

OR ... possibly I have a poor imagination.

 

[DiracPool]

You have a seriously deranged imagination

OR ... possibly I have a poor imagination.

Differences in imagination are relative and I would say, by definition, are not amenable to quantification by ordinary means. And I'm sure that neither you nor I can imagine at such a rate where Lorentz effects would play any significant role.

However, if we could imagine that fast, the hyperboloid shape of the monkey saddle may indeed be the very structure we need to help us quantify the "corrections" to our cognitive load as we approach a supra-luminal speed of thought.

 

[phinds]

However, if we could imagine that fast, the hyperboloid shape of the monkey saddle may indeed be the very structure we need to help us quantify the "corrections" to our cognitive load as we approach a supra-luminal speed of thought.

Geez ... I can't even think at the speed of SOUND

 

[*now*]

More the tail interpretation for me.