15 Mesmerizing GIFs That Will Distract You From Reality
What's that? You have things to do? Not anymore.
1. Blink really fast while looking at this.
What it is: Quasicrystals as sums of waves in the plane, as this blog explains.
2. These dots look like a happy version of a printer test page.
What it is: Subtractive color theory, or CMYK dots, which are used in color printing.
3. This ball don't quit.
What it is: The Penrose triangle, also known as an impossible triangle.
4. Did you know physics is like scientific magic?
What it is: Pendulums (or pendula, if you prefer Latin plurals). The period of a pendulum depends on its length, as Discover magazine shows.
5. Shapes on shapes on shapes! Wait no, just one shape.
What it is: Spinning octahedra.
6. Experience your childhood for eternity.
What it is: An infinite-loop equation from Reddit user Fruchtfliege that would fill the universe in after about 1.5 minutes or about 28 cycles (or at least until the bottom brick is crushed).
7. Sometimes simplicity can have beautiful effects.
What it is: Rotating cubes.
8. This experiment on repeat looks like a strobe light.
What it is: An experiment with a burning fuel droplet on the International Space Station.
9. Ever play this on your TI-84? Yeah, but did you win?
What it is: Snake.
10. This one's a bit reminiscent of mod opening credits.
What it is: A simple pyramid.
11. This one's like stepping into a kaleidoscope.
What it is: A color vortex.
12. This one might trigger flashbacks to napping through geometry.
What it is: A hyperboloid, or a doubly-ruled surface for the math-inclined.
13. This one almost hurts.
What it is: A Moiré pattern, or an interference pattern made when two repetitive surfaces overlap and are moved around. You can play around with some here.
14. Who knew rotating triangles can make something this cool?
What it is: A Sierpiński triangle fractal.
15. This just seems like a wheel happily puttering within a wheel.
What it is: Dots moving along straight lines. The proof!