The Frisbee of Art: The Ellipse

[Ann]

For no particular reason, I thought I'd post a link to an article (or perhaps a blog) in today's New York Times. The article (or blog) in question suggests that the ability to draw an ellipse is the key to producing great art, and it calls the ellipse the frisbee of art. I like the name. And I thought that the ellipse is the key to many things astronomical, too, so why not post a link to the article here?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... ?th&emc=th

Ann

[hstarbuck]

Draw this ellipse and win an art scholarship. And no cheating with string and tacks. Fun article.

[neufer]

Aerial view of the Ellipse

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<<President's Park South (commonly called the Ellipse) is a 52-acre park located just south of the White House fence. Properly, the Ellipse is the name of the five-furlong (~1 km) circumference street within the park.
The entire park is open to the public, and features various monuments.
The Ellipse is also the location for a number of annual events including Ultimate Frisbee competitions.

The Ellipse Meridian Stone, located slightly under the surface near the center of the Ellipse (38.893897°N 77.036573°W), commemorates President Thomas Jefferson's idea of an American prime meridian.

In 1791, the first plan for the park was drawn up by Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant. The Ellipse was known as "the White Lot" due to the whitewashed wooden fence that enclosed the park. During the American Civil War, the grounds of the Ellipse and incomplete Washington Monument were used as corrals for horses, mules, and cattle, and as camp sites for Union troops. The Army Corps of Engineers began work on the Ellipse in 1867. The park was landscaped in 1879, and American Elms were planted around the existing portion of roadway. In 1880, grading was begun and the Ellipse was created from what had been a common dump. In 1894, the Ellipse roadway was lit with electric lamps.

In the 1890s, Congress authorized the use of the Ellipse grounds to special groups, including religious meetings and military encampments. As late as 1990, baseball fields and tennis courts existed in the park. Sporting events and demonstrations are still held on the Ellipse. President's Park South came under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1933.

On Christmas Eve 1923, President Calvin Coolidge started an unbroken tradition by lighting the first "National Christmas Tree". The first tree, a cut balsam fir, was placed on the Ellipse by the District of Columbia Public Schools. From 1924 to 1953, live trees in various locations around and on the White House grounds were lit on Christmas Eve. In 1954, the ceremony returned to the Ellipse and with an expanded focus: the "Christmas Pageant of Peace". From 1954 through 1972, cut trees were used, but in 1973 a Colorado BLUE spruce from York, Pennsylvania was planted on the Ellipse. A replacement was planted in 1978.

In 1942, during World War II, the National Park Service granted permission for the construction of barracks as a special emergency war-time measure. The temporary barracks were erected on the south side of the Old Executive Office Building and the entire First Division Monument grounds. The "White House Barracks" were demolished in 1954.>>

Ellipse: 1058.26' by 902.85' (ratio = 1.1721)
Oval Office: 430" by 348" (ratio = 1.2356)

President Barack Obama plays Golf in the Oval Office

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<<The Oval Office is the official office of the President of the United States. Created in 1909 as part of an overall expansion of the West Wing of the White House during the administration of William Howard Taft, the office was inspired by the elliptical Blue Room. The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk and a fireplace at the north end of the room.

Presidents generally change the office to suit their personal taste, choosing new furniture, new drapery, and designing their own oval-shaped carpet to take up most of the floor. The Oval Office has four doors: the east door opens to the Rose Garden; the west door leads to a private smaller study and dining room; the northwest door opens onto the main corridor of the West Wing; and the northeast door opens to the office of the president's secretary.

Though architect James Hoban's original design for the White House included oval rooms, the idea of an oval office did not come about until planning for the West Wing expansion in 1909. It was the conception of Theodore Roosevelt, brought out by his wife's idea that the shared space between bedrooms and offices of the White House should be separate. An oval interior space is a Baroque concept that was adapted by Neoclassicism. Oval rooms became popular in eighteenth century neoclassical architecture, and it is considered likely that Hoban was influenced by the elliptical chamber at Castle Coole in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. That room has identical dimensions, and includes the two recessed niches found in Hoban's original design for the Blue Room. The "elliptic salon"—in the form of the Blue Room and Yellow Oval Room—was the outstanding feature of James Hoban's original plan of the White House. At the temporary "President's House" in Philadelphia, George Washington had two rooms each modified with an apsidal bowed end, which were used for hosting the formal receptions called levees. As his guests formed a circle around him, Washington could stand in the center with everyone an equal distance from the president. The apsidal end of a room was a traditional site of honor, for a host, a potentate, or the magistrate in a basilica.>>

[rstevenson]

A timely thread. Australian Rules Football is played on an elliptical field -- in fact it's played on cricket ovals in the cricket off-season. And tomorrow (right now, almost, but I won't see it until tomorrow) the AFL is playing their Grand Final match -- this year between the St. Kilda Saints and the Collingwood Magpies. Go Saints! (Which, as per the rules of the Asterisk, is an entirely unreligious entreaty.)

A typical Footy pitch

Aussie_stadium.svg.png (16.12 KiB) Viewed 2408 times

There are few games played on oval or elliptical surfaces, so I thought I'd mention this most exciting form of football in this thread. Interestingly, there are no standard dimensions, nor even standard proportions, for a footy field. To quote a web source... "The ground is between 135 and 185 metres in length and 110 and 155 metres in width."

Rob

[neufer]

A timely thread. Australian Rules Football is played on an elliptical field -- in fact it's played on cricket ovals in the cricket off-season.

Oval catching stance typical of a
fieldsman in a silly catching position

Silly: VERY close to the batsman

There are a number of named basic cricket fielding positions, some of which are employed very commonly and others that are used less often. However, fielding positions are not fixed, and fielders can be placed in positions that differ from the basic positions. Most of the positions are named roughly according to a system of polar coordinates - one word (leg, cover, mid-wicket) specifies the angle from the batsman, and is optionally preceded by an adjective describing the distance from the batsman (silly, short, deep or long). The bowler, after delivering the ball, must avoid running on the pitch so usually ends up fielding near silly mid on or silly mid off, but somewhat closer to the pitch.

GO MAGPIES!
(Which, as per the rules of the Asterisk, is an entirely non-owl entreaty.)

A standard oval cricket ground

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An Australian rules football [i.e., Rugby] playing field is typically a large oval-shaped grass surface (often modified cricket fields). These fields may vary especially for variations of the game. However for official Australian Football League matches, strict requirement specifications must be met for stadiums

A cricket field consists of a large circular or oval-shaped grassy ground on which the game of cricket is played. There are no fixed dimensions for the field but its diameter usually varies between 450 feet (137 m) to 500 feet (150 m). It is the only ground(cricket) in the world which has no fixed shape. On most grounds, a rope demarcates the perimeter of the field and is known as the boundary.