GEORGE NEWS - A math artwork created by the 17-year-old Louis du Plessis from George has been placed among the top 25 works in an international competition by Desmos Studio, developers of a graphing calculator*.

This is no mean feat, as it is the first time that Louis has tried his hand at math art. Math art is art created on a computer by using mathematical formulas. 

Louis's artwork, The Collector's Curve, is not just a picture, but portrays a meaningful message, questioning man's never-ending quests into space while much on our own planet remains unexplored.

Intrigued by a video he saw on YouTube on the collector's curve (also called species accumulation curve**), he incorporated it into his artwork as the trajectory of a space craft moving through the sky in the background with a cross section of the undulating ocean in the foreground, revealing an unknown species of fish curling around a spacecraft capsule left behind.

"I wanted to express how I feel about us spending so much time and effort to explore space, while many species are waiting to be discovered here on earth. 

"I based the fish on the oarfish, because it intrigues me and is responsible for most recorded sightings of so-called sea monsters."

He gave George Herald a fascinating demonstration on his laptop of how mathematical formulas turn into pictures with the Desmos graphing calculator. Every detail and also the movements in the picture are formulas that he had to figure out. 

He even incorporated reflections on the moving water. His artwork is accompanied by a beautiful poem as well as a piece of piano music which he created himself, also with very, very long formulas. It took him 77 hours to complete the artwork.

Louis says he loves to see how math can be applied in a practical way and using it in this manner also helps him understand it better. 

"My interests are mostly related to computers - making videos and music, games code, and photo and video editing are all things that I love doing."

This clever youngster, who is a pupil at Alethea Academy, is considering studying something in the line of electronic engineering after matric, but has not made a final decision yet.

Louis's math artwork, 'The Collector's Curve'. In addition to creating a picture with math formulas, he also made the water, reflections, fish, grass and the rocket in the sky to move.

*A graphing calculator has the ability to display plotted graphs for complex equations and are more sophisticated than basic calculators in processing multiple equations and performing more complex types of calculations.

**Species accumulation curves allow researchers to assess and compare diversity across populations.

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