Poincare' conjecture
I feel like I should say something meaningful since Grigory Perelman solved the Poincare Conjecture which states that any closed simply connected 3-dimensional manifold is homeomorphic to the standard 3-dimensional sphere.
Without going into homology, I'll try to explain in laymen's terms...Basically any 3-d bounded blob (ex. no feelers going off into infinity) living in 4-d can be collapsed into a sphere without ripping, tearing or ajoining. Yeah, that was a bad attempt. There's a reason why I don't teach anymore! The Clay Mathematics institute is much more eloquent than I.
You're probably going, oh come on, how complicated can a blobby thing be? Heh. I present to you the Alexander Horned Sphere:
This happens to be one of my favorite topological verities.
It's a fractal (a type of Cantor set to be exact), so as you zoom into those horny parts, you see more detail. This blob is homeomorphic to a sphere.
I think its interesting the conjecture has been proven for higher dimensions prior to Perelman's contribution for n=3. Humans are 3 dimensional creatures coexisting with time, in a 4 dimensional space. Perhaps it was because we live too close akin to the objects in question which is why n=3 alluded mathematicians for so long.
**
To the person who said bunnies are the same as spheres....That's not true! The digestive track runs from mouth to anus, so they are tori. Okay, I'm done ranting now.
Without going into homology, I'll try to explain in laymen's terms...Basically any 3-d bounded blob (ex. no feelers going off into infinity) living in 4-d can be collapsed into a sphere without ripping, tearing or ajoining. Yeah, that was a bad attempt. There's a reason why I don't teach anymore! The Clay Mathematics institute is much more eloquent than I.
You're probably going, oh come on, how complicated can a blobby thing be? Heh. I present to you the Alexander Horned Sphere:
This happens to be one of my favorite topological verities.
It's a fractal (a type of Cantor set to be exact), so as you zoom into those horny parts, you see more detail. This blob is homeomorphic to a sphere.
I think its interesting the conjecture has been proven for higher dimensions prior to Perelman's contribution for n=3. Humans are 3 dimensional creatures coexisting with time, in a 4 dimensional space. Perhaps it was because we live too close akin to the objects in question which is why n=3 alluded mathematicians for so long.
**
To the person who said bunnies are the same as spheres....That's not true! The digestive track runs from mouth to anus, so they are tori. Okay, I'm done ranting now.
2 Comments:
Hi, Cindy --
You lost me after " I feel like I should say something meaningful since Grigory Perelman solved the Poincare Conjecture which states that..."
Huh?
Sandy
Hee hee...if you're really dying to know, I can draw pics of this theorem over lunch one day.
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