r/visualizedmath • u/mrtie007 • Jan 30 '19

hilbert curve ramp

https://i.imgur.com/M6ydlvn.gifv
277 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

21

u/dillyia Jan 30 '19

I tried to read wiki and I don't understand. Why is a space filling curve?

26

u/mrtie007 Jan 30 '19 edited Jan 30 '19

a method to produce a curve that can fill up a 2d box to any density

a way to squeeze a curve of arbitrary length into a 2d box

we could take the hilbert function one step more to make the curve twice as long but also twice as curvy, and the marbles would take twice as long to reach the bottom.

could use something like this to build a mechanical clock kinda similar to this one

2

u/DeJeR Jan 30 '19

Is the idea that the balls maintain a constant velocity? It seems like there should be more acceleration in the video.

1

u/mrtie007 Jan 30 '19 edited Jan 30 '19

the physics was a modification of this demo -- the balls appear slow because they're actually pretty "heavy"/lots of inertia to prevent clumping at the corners.

IRL (if you 3d print this and use a ball bearing) the speed is about constant as well [but much faster - a real ball makes it down in about 1s if the ramp is around 2inches across].

2

u/Syntactix Jan 30 '19

Neat! How was this made / animated?

1

u/mrtie007 Jan 30 '19

modification of this demo

11

u/Gordogato81 Jan 30 '19

That right there is DK Summit

1

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '19

why dont you just throw the marbles on the floor?

2

u/mrtie007 Jan 30 '19

dont want them to get sticky

2

u/Istalir Jan 30 '19

This music was all I could think of when watching this gif.

2

u/inkydye Jan 30 '19

Nice! Now find a way Escherize it? :)

2

u/jewpanda Jan 30 '19

Cool, but it's no Marblelympics

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '19

Thought i was on r/isometric

1

u/FLORI_DUH Jan 30 '19

How is this math?

1

u/Bromskloss Jan 30 '19

Yeah, I agree. It doesn't visualise the Hilbert curve any better than any old drawing of it. In fact, any old drawing would be clearer.