Halloween in LaTeX
I forget where I found this list of spooky LaTeX commands but, with the dreaded Halloween coming up soon, I thought I’d share it here.
Anyway, it reminded of the mathematical curve known in English as The Witch of Agnesi, the witch of which is a mistranslation of the Italian versiera meaning a ‘sheet’ (ie the rope connecting to a ship’s sail) rather than a shortened version of ‘avversiera’ meaning ‘a female devil’ or ‘witch’.
Follow @telescoper
In the Dark 
October 21, 2018 at 11:18 pm
Anyone else remember Lockwood’s wonderful Book of Curves?
October 22, 2018 at 6:37 am
I thought about the same thing this morning but without your reference. The added tension in the rope is maximized at the top and null at the bottom… If you consider an extension of the rope having a length of 2*a along the y axis inside the circle which is released as a length equal to y, you get a constant tension with a minimal value. A stress relief… For some it might be trivial but still interesting for others. Only the projection on the y axis exerts a tension.
October 23, 2018 at 9:05 pm
What have clouds got to do with Halloween?
October 23, 2018 at 9:08 pm
The connection is somewhat nebulous.
October 23, 2018 at 11:28 pm
interesting related video.