4 ms·

Wormhole devices in movies keep puzzling me for quite some time - why does a significant number of them look like rings rotating around each other? Contact is o

• magicalhippo 5y ago
  Not sure if there's some pseudo-physical explanation, but I've imagined it has something to do with visualizing the three dimensions that are manipulated. Interestingly both Event Horizon and Contact (movie) are from 1997...
• goldenkey 5y ago
  Pretty sure it mostly stems from initial illustrations for The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.
• hnlmorg 5y ago
  I suspect the reason is as simple as it looks cool and dramatic on screen.
• at_a_remove 5y ago
  I've often thought about this. Currently, our sole way of manipulating spacetime is by cramming a heck of a lot of matter in one spot, which is to say that we don't really do much of it. Any way short of crushing down mountainsful of matter into a thimble would necessarily be more complex, with more moving parts. I can only think that rotation would come into play, and if one dimension is good, three would have to be better if you want to shred spacetime. I don't think it's doable but in the sense that you want something to visually convey it, it may as well be the equivalent of lightning to stand in for electricity.