X iv :m at hph /0 00 80 39 v1 3 0 A ug 2 00 0 Decimation of Scherk’s First Surface Randall D. Kamien Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 16 August 2000 Abstract We show that Scherk’s first surface, a one-parameter family of solutions to the minimal surface equation, may be written as a linear superposition of itself.