turning a sphere inside out

OK this is not going to be for everyone but here's a nice peaceful mathish video (no real math involved). It's "The Geometry Center Presents Outside In".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXmxQq6MhI

This video is 37 minutes long so I don't expect all of you to watch the whole thing, unless you really want to figure out how to turn a sphere inside out, or maybe because you haven't been in school in a while and you're trying to fall asleep.

Personally, I think the vibes are great on this one-- the whole thing takes place on a kingly and dreamlike gradient from gold to purple, set only with primo textbook cover-era computer graphics. The only element that even approaches realism is a brief moment where a basketball bounces-- otherwise we are purely in abstract space. The voices are calm PBS voices in dialog, engaged but not excited. The sound effects are sparse but excellent.

Generally with internet videos I try and avoid the hooks they set-- I have ceased being interested in why [doctors/mechanics/IRS/lawyers] hate [subject of video], and if a vid tells me "wait for it", I never wait for it. But with this one, I don't know, maybe because of its esoteric nature or age (this is 1994), I allowed a desire to be planted in my mind, a desire to know. A desire to know how to turn a sphere inside out. I watched the whole thing. Actually I paused it, got something to drink, and then came back. I had to know!

The common critique of this field of learning is usually something like "when are you going to turn a sphere inside out in real life", and I can honestly say, probably never. And even if I did, suddenly, need to turn a sphere inside out, I would probably need a quick refresher on how to do it. But I still got still 2 big takeaways from the experience: 1., things might be possible in a higher dimension that are impossible in a lower dimension, and 2., you can avoid getting infinitely pinched if you stay wavy and then reorient after the transformation. And absent any results-based metric, I enjoyed this video because I got to look at something I do not understand, something that seemed impossible, and then in time realize that it's possible, and that I understand why. Wow, that's a great feeling. You guys ever learn? It rocks.

The Geometry Center produced 3 videos like this in the 90s, and a handful of miscellaneous shorts. It seems like they're all collected on this playlist: [Geometry Center on YouTube]. For more info on the Geometry Center, and supplemental texts, see [https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm/gc/].

This video doesn't have any music so if you need to play something angelic underneath that's completely valid. Here's "The Angels of Comfort" by Iasos, it's 30 minutes long and you can open it in another tab and adjust the volume as you see fit: [Iasos on YouTube]. If that doesn't work for you here's a nice little 90's jungle mix: [Peshay Studio Set on YouTube].

Peace everyone :)

If someone sent you this because you love purple and gold, or 1990's visuals, or because you're always asking people "how do you turn a sphere inside out?", you may enjoy other things I've written as well. This is Pleasant Realms, an email newsletter for mostly unstressful YouTube videos.