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You know how Saturn's North Pole is a hexagon? It wouldn't surprise me if someday we find some shape to the universe that isn't smoothly circular because of som

You know how Saturn's North Pole is a hexagon? It wouldn't surprise me if someday we find some shape to the universe that isn't smoothly circular because of some fundamental force that we don't understand yet. I'd vote for a hexagon, since if you stack a bunch of circles, that's the shape you get (the other circles being other universes). Plus bees are probably interdimensional beings.

jahnu 7y ago
Aren't those Saturnian hexagons blue? Hyperintelligent shades of the colour blue, I reckon.
deepsun 7y ago
It's been shown that spherical cow, not bees, is homeomorphic to the Universe [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow#/media/File:Spot_the_cow.gif http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow#/media/File:Spot_...
- saagarjha 7y ago
  A cow is homeomorphic to a torus due to the digestive system.
  - guerrilla 7y ago
    People too. I'm a donut.
    - saalweachter 7y ago
      You're probably more a triple torus.
      - voldacar 7y ago
        Way more than triple, considering things like nephrons in kidneys
        guerrilla 7y ago
        We can limit our precision here for more fun :)
    - chr1 7y ago
      Seven holed donut due to extra holes of nostrils and tearducts. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=egEraZP9yXQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=egEraZP9yXQ
      - saagarjha 7y ago
        How many of those go all the way through your body?
        zaarn 7y ago
        Not all of them but they don't need to; they just need to be topgraphically holey, which is why a teacup and a donut share the same number of holes for example.
        saagarjha 7y ago
        Right, and the reason a teacup and a donut have the same number of holes is because the former has a handle. Holes that don’t go all the way through don’t count.
        zaarn 7y ago
        There is plenty of holes in the human body that go all the way through (for example the ducts in your eyes going towards your nasal cavity as well as various parts of said nasal cavity).
        saagarjha 7y ago
        Fair enough, I guess we’re holey toruses ;)
anticsapp 7y ago
Your vote is correct. You're not the only one voting hexagonal: https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library...
perl4ever 7y ago
Every now and then I read some far-out scientific paper, and I'm pretty sure it's real, but I get fascinated with the question of how I really know that it's not pseudo-science by some crank. Example: "In this section, we investigate the band structures of plasmonic ribbons with four types of boundary conditions, i.e. zigzag, bearded zigzag, armchair, and bearded armchair" (from "The existence of topological edge states in honeycomb plasmonic lattices")
- whatshisface 7y ago
  A real crank would try to use professional-sounding language, only someone completely secure in their field would call sometime a "bearded armchair." ;)
  - marcus_holmes 7y ago
    naming things is hard. I now have this mental image of the author sat there for three hours trying to come up with a name, and then just exploding with "fuckit! I don't care what it's called! It doesn't matter. I was sat in an armchair when I thought of it, so armchair it is! If they can have strange quarks, I can have armchairs"
  - lowdose 7y ago
    A real smart crank is aware of this and because he only spends time on cranking this was the riddle he made. Not many academics would be confident enough to call this man on his bullshit.
- lvncelot 7y ago
  Physicists are amazing in coming up with names, from WIMPs (Weakly interacting massive particles) to something like Nuclear Pasta[1], with all sorts of culinary phases. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pasta#Phases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pasta#Phases
  - deadmetheny 7y ago
    My personal favourite is the 'barn', an area approximately the size of the face of a uranium nucleus, invented to covertly describe a large-ish target size to hit (the 'broad side of a barn') with a particle beam.
naasking 7y ago
> Plus bees are probably interdimensional beings. You misspelled "mice".
williamdclt 7y ago
> I'd vote for a hexagon, since if you stack a bunch of circles, that's the shape you get I can't imagine that, do you have a link to explain it or is it a joke?
- arbitrage 7y ago
  Here you go! This explains it well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-packing_of_equal_spheres https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-packing_of_equal_spheres Imagine stacking marbles. They'll naturally fall into a hexagonal pattern as the most likely way of naturally stacking.
- alanbernstein 7y ago
  "pack" might have been a more appropriate term than "stack". Tightly packed circles (in 2d) form a hex grid. More relevant, though, might be the shapes you get when packing spheres: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombic_dodecahedral_honeycomb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombic_dodecahedral_honeyco...

jahnu 7y ago

Aren't those Saturnian hexagons blue? Hyperintelligent shades of the colour blue, I reckon.

deepsun 7y ago

It's been shown that spherical cow, not bees, is homeomorphic to the Universe [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow#/media/File:Spot_the_cow.gif http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow#/media/File:Spot_...

saagarjha 7y ago
A cow is homeomorphic to a torus due to the digestive system.
- guerrilla 7y ago
  People too. I'm a donut.
  - saalweachter 7y ago
    You're probably more a triple torus.
    - voldacar 7y ago
      Way more than triple, considering things like nephrons in kidneys
      - guerrilla 7y ago
        We can limit our precision here for more fun :)
  - chr1 7y ago
    Seven holed donut due to extra holes of nostrils and tearducts. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=egEraZP9yXQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=egEraZP9yXQ
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      How many of those go all the way through your body?
      - zaarn 7y ago
        Not all of them but they don't need to; they just need to be topgraphically holey, which is why a teacup and a donut share the same number of holes for example.
        saagarjha 7y ago
        Right, and the reason a teacup and a donut have the same number of holes is because the former has a handle. Holes that don’t go all the way through don’t count.
        zaarn 7y ago
        There is plenty of holes in the human body that go all the way through (for example the ducts in your eyes going towards your nasal cavity as well as various parts of said nasal cavity).
        saagarjha 7y ago
        Fair enough, I guess we’re holey toruses ;)

anticsapp 7y ago

Your vote is correct. You're not the only one voting hexagonal: https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library...

perl4ever 7y ago

Every now and then I read some far-out scientific paper, and I'm pretty sure it's real, but I get fascinated with the question of how I really know that it's not pseudo-science by some crank. Example: "In this section, we investigate the band structures of plasmonic ribbons with four types of boundary conditions, i.e. zigzag, bearded zigzag, armchair, and bearded armchair" (from "The existence of topological edge states in honeycomb plasmonic lattices")

whatshisface 7y ago
A real crank would try to use professional-sounding language, only someone completely secure in their field would call sometime a "bearded armchair." ;)
- marcus_holmes 7y ago
  naming things is hard. I now have this mental image of the author sat there for three hours trying to come up with a name, and then just exploding with "fuckit! I don't care what it's called! It doesn't matter. I was sat in an armchair when I thought of it, so armchair it is! If they can have strange quarks, I can have armchairs"
- lowdose 7y ago
  A real smart crank is aware of this and because he only spends time on cranking this was the riddle he made. Not many academics would be confident enough to call this man on his bullshit.
lvncelot 7y ago
Physicists are amazing in coming up with names, from WIMPs (Weakly interacting massive particles) to something like Nuclear Pasta[1], with all sorts of culinary phases. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pasta#Phases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pasta#Phases
- deadmetheny 7y ago
  My personal favourite is the 'barn', an area approximately the size of the face of a uranium nucleus, invented to covertly describe a large-ish target size to hit (the 'broad side of a barn') with a particle beam.

naasking 7y ago

> Plus bees are probably interdimensional beings. You misspelled "mice".

williamdclt 7y ago

> I'd vote for a hexagon, since if you stack a bunch of circles, that's the shape you get I can't imagine that, do you have a link to explain it or is it a joke?

arbitrage 7y ago
Here you go! This explains it well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-packing_of_equal_spheres https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-packing_of_equal_spheres Imagine stacking marbles. They'll naturally fall into a hexagonal pattern as the most likely way of naturally stacking.
alanbernstein 7y ago
"pack" might have been a more appropriate term than "stack". Tightly packed circles (in 2d) form a hex grid. More relevant, though, might be the shapes you get when packing spheres: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombic_dodecahedral_honeycomb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombic_dodecahedral_honeyco...