Event 3: Griffith Observatory

 I went to the Griffith Observatory yesterday, and I was extremely attracted by the beautiful view of Los Angeles city lights. After entering the observatory, the painting on the ceiling is amazing. It recalls the concepts of “two cultures” and “the third culture” I learnt at the beginning of the quarter. Even though the Griffith Observatory is a public astronomic exhibition hall, we can still see the artistic painting on the ceiling. It is a perfect example which art has a close relationship with science, and we are not able to totally separate them in our daily life.

Painting on the ceiling

Pendulum

The next thing I saw was a pendulum, and it also gave me intuition about the relationship between art and science. If we ignore the friction of air, a pendulum can swing back and forth forever, and we can predict the path of the pendulum. It moves linearly, and the path of it is symmetric. Since the principle of math and physics, the pendulum can move with a symmetric path, and this principle is used in a lot of area of architecture which shows the beauty of art. 

In the Griffith Observatory, I saw a large number of equipments, and they are used to observe stars. It is another example that art and science have close relationship. All these equipments are invented by science (optics, mathematics, etc.), and they are used to observe stars, and people can enjoy the beauty of stars via these equipments.

Planet forecast 

Since I am a stock trader, the Griffith Observatory makes me think about William Delbert Gann. Gann is a very famous technical analyst, and he is also a successful future trader. Gann thinks that dealing with equity market is a mixture of art and science. Gann has his own theory which is called “Gann’s Theory”. Since Gann is very interested in astronomy, he tries to use the location relationship of eight planets to predict the trend of equity market. Gann thinks the attraction of planets will change when they have different location with each other, and human’s psychology will change due to the changing of attraction. It is quite amazing, and Gann is viewed as both an artist and a scientist.

Me

I really enjoy the trip to the Griffith Observatory, and I highly recommend my classmates visiting the Griffith Observatory. However, I think it will give me more intuitions after I learn “art and space” in week 9. If my classmates want to visit the Griffith Observatory, they can go over the contents of “art and space” first.

 Work Cited:

Gann, William D. The W.D. Gann Master Commodity Course: Original Commody Market Trading Course. Milton Keynes: BN Publ., 2009. Print.