A catenary is the shape assumed by a hanging chain. More precisely, it is the solution of the following mathematical problem: of all plane curves of a fixed length joining two fixed points, which has the least potential energy in a uniform...

In physics, the catenary is the shape of a hanging flexible chain or cable when supported at its ends and acted upon by a uniform gravitational force (its own weight). The chain is steepest near the points of suspension because this part of the chain...

TJHAESCPOEDRE: Hungup on puzzles, paintings cast apall JASPER JOHNS: CATENARY MatthewMarks Gallery 522 West 22nd Street ThroughJune25 Thrillers like The Da Vinci Code provide an initial buzz, but asplottwistsmechanisticallypileup, puzzlesolving becomes a chore. Sad to report, the great Jasper...

THE use of overhead conductor rails to deliver power supplies is limited, in Britain at least, to freight terminals, depots and swing bridges. Elsewhere, though, it is used more extensively in areas where there is limited clearance. The longest rigid overhead catenary...

My students tell me the painter Julie Mehretu is hot stuff. Given the heft of her press packet, she must be: You can flip through its pages at the front desk of Projectile, a West 57th Street gallery that's exhibiting Ms. Mehretu's works on paper.An...

Wednesday 4thSome more things we're just not on board with: the warmed-over meat loaf that is the new New York Times Thursday Styles section. White power males swimming naked? Yuck! (We give them exactly two weeks before they publish a feature on the "shaved scrotum"...