Sunday, December 2, 2007

Ok, I get it. The formatting on that previous post wasn't so hot. I'll keep that in mind with the next picture I include, and place the image more apporpriately. Anyrate though, it's my experience a lot of people have no clue what that image is meant to be, and not simply because it's not a good image. Granted, I believe I could do a better job, but it's what I had handy at the time.

The short answer: That's a klein bottle. Named after the guy who came up with the rather bizarre idea. It's a container that has no volume. It has one side, and no edge.
For a much longer, and entirely more accurate answer, I'd suggest you look wander over to http://www.kleinbottle.com/whats_a_klein_bottle.htm

You can also order em there. Sort of. Strictly speaking, you can't make one in three dimensions, but it's as close as you can get, really. If anyone's interested, I have one myself. Not from them though. Got one of my old teachers, well not an old teacher at the time, but at anyrate, my old school has a 3D printer, which we printed out a copy of my klein bottle on. If there's interest, I'll take a photo of the thing and display it proudly. (even though the problems with it are even more glaring on the physical model.)

Enjoy, people!

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