The Batman Symbol is Mathematical

In a previous blog, I wrote about math's beauty by talking about rose curves (here's the blog post: Who Said Math Isn't Beautiful?). In contrast to math's feminine beauty, math has a second face; a face that says, "I'm a hardcore vigilante that stops evil at any costs--glorious explosions, deadly weapons, sophisticated gadgets, devious plans, etc.--because I can." 

A math teacher decided--on his or her free time--to create a piece-wise equation that generates a symbol that is widely known--the famous Batman symbol. The equation (as seen by the very first image of this post) demonstrates the harshest, ugliest, and the most complex equation--that is legitimate--that anyone has ever seen. The equation is truly a beast. The math teacher didn't state anything that said what techniques he or she used to generate the equation. I'm assuming that the teacher used the basic characteristics of conics--parabolas, ellipses, hyperbolas, etc.--and a whole lot of trial and error. You can see the basic functions in the picture: the blue and red show the simple square root equations, y= √(x); the green portions appear to be parabolas, y=x²; the blue also shows simple linear equations, y=x.

Math can do a lot of crazy things, and a lot of equations do pop out wacky solutions. This equation not only creates a curve that displays Batman's symbol, but also demonstrates a real life application. Although this equation is truly ugly, the outcome is truly fabulous. Who knew that the alphabet soup equation can be tasty eye candy? The equation shows that the horrible situation you're in can become a positive. For example, college students may take several years to graduate and work at a dead-end job but by looking at their prospects motivates them to endure the unbearable times to reach their ultimate goal. The math teacher, more than likely, took painstaking, meticulous time to create this equation, but when it was all done the teacher must have been fully satiated. Although times may be rough, just continue walking down the unfortunate lane because soon there will be a highway to paradise.