You can model a lightning strike by letting it solve a maze. If there is no connection, nothing happens. The air simply resists. If there is a connection, that path becomes the easiest route, so the discharge snaps through it.

“Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.” — Isaac Newton

Do you see emergence as something real in nature, or just a consequence of our limited ability to compute and know everything?

It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong. — Richard P. Feynman

Can random chaos solve a problem without using logic? Instead of "thinking," this simulation fills the maze with "smoke." Thousands of particles bounce around randomly until one hits the exit. It’s far from efficient, but it gets the job done.

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. — Carl Sagan

Could singularities be points where our 3D physics breaks down into higher-dimensional chaos?

“The universe is bigger than your view of the universe. There's always room for a new idea.”

When asked why are numbers beautiful? “It’s like asking why is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is.” — Paul Erdos

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty… capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. — Bertrand Russell

There are about 100 million black holes on the loose (rogue) in the Milky Way.

When Mathematics Comes Alive 🎥 alanthebecker

A method of drawing infinitely many touching circles Credit: Matt Henderson

Grigori Perelman, the mathematician who solved the Poincaré Conjecture and turned down both the Fields Medal and the $1,000,000 Clay Prize. Take a bow?

Our whole solar system sits inside a deflated cosmic croissant. The nonstop wind of charged particles and magnetic fields blasted by the Sun pushes against the thin gas and dust floating between the stars, carving out a giant protective bubble.

Watch a 2 layer neural network learn to separate two classes to the left and right Credit: Matt Henderson

Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality. — Nikola Tesla

Found it somewhere!

Angular momentum keeps a gyroscope impossibly standing. You spin fast enough, and gravity loses. Simple physics that feels almost magical.

Two balls rolling down two slopes. While the indirect path proves faster at first, the direct path wins in the end. Credit: Matt Henderson