Lee Sallows
Encyclopedia
Lee Cecil Fletcher Sallows (born April 30, 1944) is a British electronics engineer known for his contributions to recreational mathematics
. He is particularly noted as the inventor of golygon
s, self-enumerating sentences, and geomagic squares. Sallows has an Erdős number
of 2.
who has said that he believes that "an even deeper structure may lie hidden beyond geomagic squares"
In 1984 Lee Sallows invented the self-enumerating sentence—a sentence that inventories it own letters. Following failure in his attempt to write a computer program to generate such sentences, he constructed a so-called electronic Pangram Machine, among the results of which was the following
sentence that appeared in Douglas Hofstadter
's Metamagical Themas
column in Scientific American
in October 1984:
A golygon is a polygon
containing only right angles, such that adjacent sides exhibit consecutive integer lengths. Golygons were invented and named by Sallows and introduced by A.K. Dewdney in the Computer Recreations column of the July 1990 issue of Scientific American.
in England and until the age of 26 lived in London. Since 1970 he has lived in Nijmegen in the Netherlands where until recently he was an electronics engineer at Radboud University
. In 1973 Sallows met up with his Dutch partner Evert Lamfers, with whom he has lived ever since.
Recreational mathematics
Recreational mathematics is an umbrella term, referring to mathematical puzzles and mathematical games.Not all problems in this field require a knowledge of advanced mathematics, and thus, recreational mathematics often attracts the curiosity of non-mathematicians, and inspires their further study...
. He is particularly noted as the inventor of golygon
Golygon
A golygon is any polygon with all right angles, whose sides are consecutive integer lengths. Golygons were invented and named by Lee Sallows, and popularized by A. K. Dewdney in a 1990 Scientific American column...
s, self-enumerating sentences, and geomagic squares. Sallows has an Erdős number
Erdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
of 2.
Recreational mathematics
Sallows is an expert on the theory of magic squares and has invented several variations on them, including alphamagic squares and geomagic squares. The latter invention caught the attention of mathematician Peter CameronPeter Cameron (mathematician)
Peter Jephson Cameron is an Australian mathematician who works ingroup theory, combinatorics, coding theory, and model theory. He is currently Professor of Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London....
who has said that he believes that "an even deeper structure may lie hidden beyond geomagic squares"
In 1984 Lee Sallows invented the self-enumerating sentence—a sentence that inventories it own letters. Following failure in his attempt to write a computer program to generate such sentences, he constructed a so-called electronic Pangram Machine, among the results of which was the following
sentence that appeared in Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Richard Hofstadter is an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics...
's Metamagical Themas
Metamagical Themas
Metamagical Themas is a collection of eclectic articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books ....
column in Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
in October 1984:
This Pangram contains four as, one b, two cs, one d, thirty es, six fs, five gs, seven hs, eleven is, one j, one k, two ls, two ms, eighteen ns, fifteen os, two ps, one q, five rs, twenty-seven ss, eighteen ts, two us, seven vs, eight ws, two xs, three ys, & one z.
A golygon is a polygon
Polygon
In geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
containing only right angles, such that adjacent sides exhibit consecutive integer lengths. Golygons were invented and named by Sallows and introduced by A.K. Dewdney in the Computer Recreations column of the July 1990 issue of Scientific American.
Personal life
Lee Cecil Fletcher Sallows was born at Welwyn, HertfordshireWelwyn Hatfield
The Borough of Welwyn Hatfield is a local government district in southern Hertfordshire, England.Its covers the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, along with numerous smaller settlements from Woolmer Green in the north to Little Heath in the south. Each of the towns has a railway station...
in England and until the age of 26 lived in London. Since 1970 he has lived in Nijmegen in the Netherlands where until recently he was an electronics engineer at Radboud University
Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
. In 1973 Sallows met up with his Dutch partner Evert Lamfers, with whom he has lived ever since.