this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
502 points (94.0% liked)

Science Memes

20192 readers
2373 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
all 40 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 123 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Seems to me like it's demonstrating the projection of a complex three dimensional shape which produces a simple pattern on a two dimensional plane.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 75 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's worse. It's the projection of a 3d shape onto a 2d shape, which is then captured on a different 2d shape to be displayed to us.

It also has a brief 4d dimension, sliced at the second the picture was taken.

[–] verdare@piefed.blahaj.zone 30 points 1 month ago

Rolling shutter, my beloathed.

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

thatsthejoke.jpg

But what's the time equivalent flashlight?!

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Manifolds such as these are actually defined by the maps used from a linear space. Two manifolds (i.e. two sets of maps) are considered the same (isomorphic) if the maps of one set can be "morphed" into the other and vice versa.

The flashlight demonstrates how the manifold's map projects into the linear space. See stereographic projection.

That's kind of part of a larger point actually: There is no 3d vector space in reality. It's a made up construct used to make sense of the world around us.

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 97 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

No. He shows how non euclidean (spherical) space translates to euclidean (flat) space. Description is bullshit.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

There is the cool idea of showing how different dimensions, in our situation where fully visualizing a fourth dimension is fundamentally impossible, could potentially look. Like, yes this is obviously not going to show us a fourth dimension but looking at how a 2D plane can actually be a 3D space if you have the capacity to see it is kinda neat. It’s as close as most people are going to get to visualizing a fourth dimension.

You’re so focused on how this isn’t a literal representation of something fundamentally impossible to represent that you forgot to exercise your imagination even a little bit.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social -4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What if I were to tell you you're supposed to extrapolate the concept instead of taking it absolutely literally?

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There's nothing to extrapolate here. The description is BS. There's no such thing as 'linear plane' there's a flat plane and curved plane (with positive and negative curvatures). There's a thing called linear algebra but it's not the same. Also planes are 2 dimensional spaces. When you have more dimensions name 'plane' doesn't apply. If you extrapolate BS you'll get even more BS

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Isn't the description dumbed down to fit thosoe of us with less than mathematician level brains? :-)

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The description hurts my brain, it doesn't make any sense to me at all, it just seems to be filled with irrelevant words that sound sciency to someone who doesn't know what they mean. Like a bad sci fi script.

[–] wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe 49 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's just a stereographic projection wtf are you on about

[–] Zron@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] shane@feddit.nl 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Golden@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Organic slop™

[–] grau0wl@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can I buy this chandelier?

[–] Trex202@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago

In the Beyond section of Bed Bath and Beyond

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 21 points 1 month ago

Oh yes, a 4D print casting a 3D shadow

[–] BigBenis@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Isn't "3rd dimensional plane" an oxymoron?

[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 month ago

I mean typically people refer to planes as hyperplanes once you go past 3D, but I’ve definitely heard them just called “planes” too

Hyperplanes are just a generalization of planes to higher dimensions. Often you hear the term when working with vectors because, like in 3D, you can define an n-dimensional hyperplane by a surface normal vector and a point. All lines perpendicular (orthogonal) to that normal vector which pass through the point form the plane.

It’s a useful concept and since we already have a word for that kind of structure in 3D space we just use the same term for it in other dimensions

[–] traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Hmmm. I don’t think so but I do think it is incorrectly used here. To me, the 3rd dimensional plane would just be the z axis. If you were talking about the entire 3D shape which they are here, I would just say 3rd dimension.

[–] 58008@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is like me laying naked on my back with an erection and saying the shadow cast by the sun is a complex timekeeping device.

[–] FunStuffIsFun@eviltoast.org 16 points 1 month ago

If you can keep time for more than 4 hours, be sure to go to the doctor.

[–] RevolverSly@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So, Earth is actually flat

[–] DarkSurferZA@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

when described in a Euclidean manner, yes

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

In euclidian metric (which we usually use) it's not, in spherical it is.

[–] lengau@midwest.social 5 points 1 month ago

I thought it was carbonated?

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 month ago
[–] timeghost@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Neat. How does this help me violate causality or skip over to a different planet? "Scientists discover we are trapped in an even deeper infinite fractal of hell from which there is no escape."

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Um, hypothetically speaking, for a ah friend, if I wanted to STOP slipping into the ever deepening abyss of further levels of hell, how might I, oh I mean my friend, accomplish this?

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's the main timeline you're experiencing, it's totally normal

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

That's what I was terrified that ~~the Eldritchian voices inside my head, and also~~ you would say.

[–] craigers@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Will it work on my 4d printer or will I have to project it down to 3d first?

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Make sure it has enough time filament to load a snapshot from the past and still print in the present.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Next an Tesseract dice

[–] Tetragrade@leminal.space 2 points 1 month ago

yapping alert