5 ms·

i totally fail to understand what's so fascinating about those bottles and why they show up on hn regularly. could someone explain?

drdrey 3y ago
they have only one side and no volume!
- defrost 3y ago
  I'm more of an infinite volume half full kind of optimist myself.
- 2-718-281-828 3y ago
  well, i'm aware of that actually. still don't get it. you look at it, realize this thing exists and that's it afaiac
  - PickledHotdog 3y ago
    People look at beautiful sunrises that way too, sometimes
dylan604 3y ago
Some people just have good taste. You apparently are not one. Do you look at an Escher piece and think what's so fascinating too?
- veddox 3y ago
  That's an unnecessary insult to what could well be an honest question.
isotropy 3y ago
Trying to explain is dodgy - it never works for jokes, either. But I think they represent a bundle of interesting contrasts that hits a sweet spot for a lot of us. Most people have made a Mobius strip out of ephemeral paper and thrown it away after fiddling with it; these are hard-wrought, complex artisinal craftings from the same family of ideas. The idea of "Klein bottle art" at first sounds rigid and limited, but the variation shows lovely creativity and artistic sense. They riff off the low humor of a dribble glass by mixing it with the sophistication of advanced math. The artist stays down-to-earth and accessible, even though he's clearly walked quite a way down a particular road of practice and experimentation that the rest of us are only going to admire from afar.
dekhn 3y ago
because physical embeddings of mathematical concepts are quite enjoyable to nerds and others. You probably wouldn't also see anything interesting here (Henry Segerman http://www.3dprintmath.com/ http://www.3dprintmath.com/ or even https://www.mojoptix.com/2015/10/25/mojoptix-001-digital-sundial/ https://www.mojoptix.com/2015/10/25/mojoptix-001-digital-sun... Personally, I can't visualize things in my head easily but having a physical object I can hold/rotate/inspect helps a ton

drdrey 3y ago

they have only one side and no volume!

defrost 3y ago
I'm more of an infinite volume half full kind of optimist myself.
2-718-281-828 3y ago
well, i'm aware of that actually. still don't get it. you look at it, realize this thing exists and that's it afaiac
- PickledHotdog 3y ago
  People look at beautiful sunrises that way too, sometimes

dylan604 3y ago

Some people just have good taste. You apparently are not one. Do you look at an Escher piece and think what's so fascinating too?

veddox 3y ago
That's an unnecessary insult to what could well be an honest question.

isotropy 3y ago

Trying to explain is dodgy - it never works for jokes, either. But I think they represent a bundle of interesting contrasts that hits a sweet spot for a lot of us. Most people have made a Mobius strip out of ephemeral paper and thrown it away after fiddling with it; these are hard-wrought, complex artisinal craftings from the same family of ideas. The idea of "Klein bottle art" at first sounds rigid and limited, but the variation shows lovely creativity and artistic sense. They riff off the low humor of a dribble glass by mixing it with the sophistication of advanced math. The artist stays down-to-earth and accessible, even though he's clearly walked quite a way down a particular road of practice and experimentation that the rest of us are only going to admire from afar.

dekhn 3y ago

because physical embeddings of mathematical concepts are quite enjoyable to nerds and others. You probably wouldn't also see anything interesting here (Henry Segerman http://www.3dprintmath.com/ http://www.3dprintmath.com/ or even https://www.mojoptix.com/2015/10/25/mojoptix-001-digital-sundial/ https://www.mojoptix.com/2015/10/25/mojoptix-001-digital-sun... Personally, I can't visualize things in my head easily but having a physical object I can hold/rotate/inspect helps a ton