WEBVTT - A Perfect Circle 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:13.680 Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.160 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.079 have you ever created something that is perfect? Have you 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:26.880 ever experienced a moment, a day, even an hour that 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:31.480 you would consider perfect? Uh? Yeah, definitely. I mean I've 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:35.320 had a sense of absolute I don't know perfection is 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.440 that the name of it, but um, the sense of 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.320 just being sort of that one with the world. I've 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.879 certainly had that moment where I created something and I 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.479 thought it was perfect, But that might have been an 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.320 Ikea effect, a moment you know, We've talked about this before. 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.559 When you make something and you put a little bit 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.880 more into it the result than it actually is. You 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.680 don't look at the imperfections of it. Um. And then 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:05.160 there are people monks who actually, we've in imperfections into 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.760 whatever they're rug they're working on, for instance, to Betan monks. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.440 Oh yes, they leave it in because the idea that 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.240 they the imperfection is important part of the form. Right. Yeah, 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.160 you couldn't possibly create something that is perfection because it 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.000 doesn't exist. Yeah, this idea of perfection is in because 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.959 I could see wherever you were assembling something, you know 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.480 that that kind of feels perfect. You know, you could say, well, 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:32.840 I assembled it perfectly as the instructions indicated. Now, of 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.520 sometimes the instructions are flawed or are uncertain, and then 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:39.720 at the end it's hard to feel perfect about it. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.840 Um Likewise, certainly there's something perfect about being in that 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.360 flow state where you're creating something and you just feel, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:52.200 you know, almost at at one with your universe. But 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.560 then at the end of the day, if you've created something, 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.760 you've written something, you've painted something. I mean, time and 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.680 time again, you see examples of people who have worked 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.360 tirelessly on something and it never seems to be perfect. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.720 You know, there that that story you're writing, that painting 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.880 that you're that sculpture that you're spending years on, Like 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.000 you're just edging a little bit closer and closer to 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.280 this idea of perfection, and it doesn't seem like you 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.200 can ever quite get it, Like, like, how do you 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.360 ever get it to match up with that, with the 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.399 with the idea in your head? I mean, I run 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.240 into this even when I'm just picking out an image 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.240 to go along with our podcast episodes, like sometimes I'll 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.320 have just sort of an abstract idea of what the 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.679 perfect illustration for this episode would be, and then I 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.000 end up just wasting all this time looking around in 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.320 our image resources trying to find something that that is 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.440 as powerful as what I want to use. A good 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.400 stark example of this kind of frustration of our expectation 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.880 versus reality is to take a pen to paper and 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.800 to try to draw a perfect circle, which is of 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.120 course the topic that we're talking about today. Have you 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:02.400 ever in your lifetime created a perfect circle? Even though 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.240 in your head it's there, you see it. Yeah, this 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.520 is a fascinating question, one that I did a short 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.239 blog post about a few weeks ago, and and I 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.519 just continue to think about because just just in terms 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.560 of drawing a circle, and and if you have the 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.959 means to do so, and you're not driving a car something, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.919 you might even give this a shot. Um It's it's 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:27.279 extremely difficult to to draw a circle that even appears 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.639 to have some level of perfection to Uh. Certainly there 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:35.120 are I've read about various uh um art schools past 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.960 and present. Uh, they've they've you know, there's a lot 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.440 of emphasis on being able to draw a very good circle. 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.360 And certainly anybody can put a you know, a soda 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.400 can on the table on a piece of paper and 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.960 trace around it and say, ha, I've created a perfect 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.000 circle because I just traced one. But but none of 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.880 these instances, have you actually created something that is a 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:03.280 mathematically perfect circle. No, because you can't really write, because 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.960 you are not a machine. And as we'll discuss later on, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.240 this idea of a perfect circle may only exist in 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.880 the mathematical realm. Yea, even even machines have not yet 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:15.800 been able to create a perfect circle and may never 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:17.839 be able to create a circle of perfect circle. And 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.160 that is just one of the sort of maddening amazing 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.520 things about this topic. Yeah, so let's talk about circles 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.280 real quick. In terms of the etymology that is. A 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.839 circle is from the Greek kircos meaning ring, from the 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.960 ancient root care meaning to turn, and they are symbols 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.200 of infinity. That's the other thing, a line that never ends. 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.160 And so that's a deeply ingrained concept in us. And 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.240 we think about this fellow time of the circle of life, 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.920 the circle of the season's serpent eating its own tail, 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.440 which we did a whole episode on the bus. Now, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:56.479 Greek philosopher Embidoccules devised a highly eccentric personal cosmology, and 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.479 his God was a circle of which the center is 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.039 everywhere are in the circumference is nowhere, which is a 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.960 really interesting thought experiment, and it plays into a lot 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.280 of what we're going to talk about. Yeah. Yeah, this 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.480 idea of circle is the infinity. This idea is of 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.320 the circle is God. I mean, certainly you look to 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:19.279 uh Dante's Divine Comedy and various other uh cosmological models, 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.920 and you see the heavens and one and even the 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.880 Hell's composed of circles. The circles are key to the 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.200 the organization of the universe, and in a sense they are, 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:31.920 I mean when you look and we'll get more into 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.800 the cosmic aspects later, but you look at at orbits, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:39.000 you look at the the basic structure of of heavenly bodies, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.480 and you see spheres, you see circles, So you can 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:44.920 you can, you know, understand it. Since the earliest days, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.599 we've been staring up into the sky and uh and 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.520 and we've seen this brilliant circle just beating beaning down 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.919 is giving all the energy and a light that we 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.920 have in this world. Yes, And to that point, the 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.840 word zodiac comes from the Greek sticklo circle zoom animal 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.599 and means circle of animals. So again here we see 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.000 this pattern playing out. Uh, not in just what we perceive, 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.760 but in language. So even we've mentioned already the idea 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.960 of circles and uh and and and the heavenly and 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.640 the supernatural and God and uh and in this we 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.360 get into the platonic ideal. This idea of the humans 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.360 are but mere copies of God's perfection. Right, Yeah, we're 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.240 talking about Greek philosopher Plato, who first observed that no 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.400 one has ever seen a perfect circle, only imperfect approximations, 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.200 and he concluded that since there are no perfect mathematical 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.599 objects to be found in the world, the objects of 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.040 mathematics were turning out perfect circles, triangles, and even numbers 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:47.520 themselves that must somehow exist. These things must how, somehow 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:52.440 exist as eternal abstract entities beyond space and time and 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:57.200 some other worldly platonic heaven called the world of forms 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.400 or ideas. And you may recognize this from our recent 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.560 episode on Supernormal Stimuli, where we end up bo waxing 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.640 a bit about this. You know again, the idea that 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:11.080 there's quote unquote perfect ideal versions of things, of objects, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.440 of of realities that are just beyond us, perhaps in 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.280 a in at least in a philosophical sense, in some 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.640 realm or dimension beyond our own. But then it gets 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.000 it gets so squirrely because we're gonna talk about the 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:28.960 mathematical aspect of this, which really starts to get into 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.840 the philosophical realm, and they are sort of intertwined. Um. 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.360 But the idea basically here is that there really is 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.880 no perfect circle. And um, you talk to someone like 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.880 John Adam, who is a mathematics professor of Old Dominion 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.120 University and the author of Mathematics and Nature Modeling Patterns 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.560 in the Natural World, and he says that no perfect 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.160 circle can occur in nature since a perfect circle is 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.560 a geometric idealization. So again we're underscoring this. It's an idealization, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.760 it is an illusion of perfection. Now at this point 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:02.440 in the podcast, I know a number of you are 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.240 probably thinking, well, what about this? What about that? What? In? 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.200 Various examples in the natural world are coming to mind, 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.880 So we're just gonna roll through some of them and 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.920 discuss almost playing the game show perfect circle and not 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:19.440 a perfect circle. Um. And spoiler, UM, you don't don't 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.040 vote for perfect circle on any of these because you'll lose. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.400 We probably there's one. There's one case where it's a 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.720 little iffy but still gets a little close. Yeah, a 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:29.760 little close. And that's the thing we we some of 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.600 these examples are very close. Um, I guess let's start 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.160 with with the planets. Okay, we live on a planet. 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:39.280 We know from looking at our charts there are all 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.440 these other planets, these a spherical planets that make up 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.920 our solar system. We know that the Sun is a 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.200 is a spear, so let's look around our own solar neighborhood. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.120 Are these perfect circles? Well, all right, take a planet 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:56.040 for instance. Um, a planet is basically a sphere. It's 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.640 it's round, and this is because the even distribution of 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.840 gravitational forces rawls matter into the spherical shape. But you 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.240 also have this centrifugal force of rotation that causes the 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.640 spheres to bulge out at the at the equator. According 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.400 to Clark Planetarium director Seth Jarvis, we're talking a barely 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:19.360 noticeable zero point three bulge at Earth's equator. But you 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.480 go to somewhere like Saturn, and there you'll see a 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.760 hafty ten percent bulge. So again to the to the 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.560 naked eye, and certainly on various illustrations that we have 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:30.840 of these these worlds, you might not get you know, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.600 you might not even pick up on it. But since this, uh, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.559 this sphere is spinning around, there is this bulge around 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.880 the equator that you have the interplay, for example, the 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.640 Earth and its moon, and that is going to inform 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.440 the way that the Earth is actually shaped, right because 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.520 of that gravitational poll and Saturn's rings those look perfectly circular. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.079 We look him, right, I mean, it looks like, seriously, 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.080 it looks like, wow, it could not be a perfect rivel. 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.320 It looks to the naked eye as though it is. 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:00.960 But parts of the ng are bent by the pull 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.520 of gravity from its other moons. So you see this 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.160 at play. And then there's that that burning orb in 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.840 the sky which appears to be a perfect circle. Yeah, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.280 and again we've looked at that, for we've worshiped the 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.480 Sun as this perfect disc right, but even our sun, 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.760 which does boast incredible mathematical roundness. I mean, when you 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.040 when when you take into everything into account, it's it 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.880 comes kind of close, but you're still going to see 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.760 a bulge of about ten kilometers at its equator, which 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.920 is very minuscule given the enormous size of our Solar 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.840 system central star. But still there's a bulge there, So 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.520 it falls short of perfection. Now, the next one should 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.120 instill some pride and lebri cons with pots of gold. 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.600 We're talking about rainbows, the arc of a rainbow, which 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.600 according to Adam, is the second closest thing to a 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.439 perfect circle in nature. And of course the rainbow is 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.160 actually a circle, so you're able to see that if 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.120 you're up above in the clouds and you're looking down. 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.360 But because we're on the horizon, we see that arc. Yes, 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:03.920 they're probably wondering, well, what is what does he think 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:05.920 is the closest thing we have in nature to do 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.640 a perfect circle? John Adam says, the closest thing ripples 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.120 in the water. Okay, you know, you drop a pebble 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.640 into a pond, a still a pond, and then you 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:19.200 watch those ripples, uh reverberate out from the center. He says, 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.559 that's that's close. Still not perfect though, Yeah, And he 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.000 said that it doesn't even matter what if the object 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:26.920 itself is round, it could be square, you could be 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.120 skipping stones, and it could be all sorts of um 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.760 herky jerky in terms of its formations. Eventually, he says 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:38.720 that those outward spirals will become a kind of perfect circle. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.160 And one important thing to keep in mind here too, 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.760 that ties in directly to the the idea of drawing 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.160 a perfect circle or you're tracing a perfect circle, is 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.800 that the closer you look at something, it may look 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.720 like it has some level of perfection from an outside 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.480 of you. But if you zoom in, then does that 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.480 line maintain its perfection? Is there is there a maintain 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.880 perfect boundary? And just imagine, you know, a pencil that's 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:05.480 drawn a circle and you zoom in, what are you 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.360 gonna see when you get closer and closer You're gonna 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.640 see uh, tiny little bits of the pencil core. Yeah, 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.880 there's a changeability factor here. But I think that's what's 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.839 so interesting again about this kind of ripple effect, because 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.360 it's sort of a zen meditation that you see that 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.120 you see the morphing, you see the circle, you know, 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.080 coming out of this situation, coming out of nothingness. And 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.000 there maybe again there's something really deeply rooted within humans 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.920 to recognize this. Now, speaking of of things within us, 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.760 how about eyes. I mean, we're always looking in the mirror, 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.360 we're looking to the eyes of other people. We're seeing 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:41.960 those around pupils perfect circle and not a perfect circle. 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.200 All right. Yeah, I'm staring at your eyeball right now, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.320 and you couldn't look more like a perfect circle the 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.280 the iris itself and the pupil. Of course it's not, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.240 but it's so pervasive in mammals, right. You see this 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.880 in mammals that are diurnal in other words, active during 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.600 the daytime, and they are shaped that way, those pupils 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:04.200 to let in the optimal amount of light. Um. Of course, 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.240 you start to diverge from this idea of these perfectly 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.000 round pupils when you look at other animals. In fact, 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.680 there's some they're really cool with pupils that look like 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.360 key holes or even hearts. Um. I mean they're not 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.160 actual hearts, but they kind of look like hearts to us. Yeah, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.880 they're I really enjoyed looking at these various images of 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.400 animal eyes. I mean, particularly like the goat eye and 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.920 the squid eye are two of my favorites. I love, 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.040 I love a goat. I like the lobster eye too, 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:37.320 because it's just out there. Now, if you go even smaller, 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.080 you go down to the micro level, we do see 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.080 near perfect roundness of the electron particle. But the interesting 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.600 thing here is that the imperfection of that of that 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.959 electron particle actually factors into some of our best theories 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.640 regarding the physical nature of the universe. So simply put, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.760 without getting you know, into general relativity, getting into general 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:02.320 relative activity, it improved measuring techniques prove electrons to be 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.360 too perfectly round, then we're forced to cast out some 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.880 of our theories proposing particles beyond those accounted for in 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.920 the standard model. So it's almost almost brings us back 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.760 to that idea of monks putting imperfection into the tapestry. 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.960 There's a certain amount of imperfection that's that's present in 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:20.920 our understanding of the universe, and if we were to 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.600 determine that that that electrons are more perfect than we 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:26.960 currently think, it's going to start unraveling some of that 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.480 tapestry we've constructed. Yeah, it kind of opens up a 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.200 whole can of worms when it comes to some of 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.160 the theories. But the reason why they are using that 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.000 electron is because that that imperfection is so very tiny. 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:44.360 We're talking point zeros one centimeters off from being perfectly round. 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.920 And put in another way, if the electron was magnified 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.000 to the size of the Solar system, it would deviate 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:55.120 from immaculate rotundity. I love that by a magnitude equivalent 0:14:55.160 --> 0:15:00.000 to a human hair. Alright, well, let's let's head back 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.160 out to the to the macro view of the universe 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.760 for one final example here, and that is the black hole. Yes, 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.840 and there are many scientists that predicted the event horizon 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.160 of a black hole. Again, the event horizon, if you 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.480 don't remember, is that that point at which light cannot 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.760 escape theoretically from the black hole, right, because the gravitational 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.240 force for the sucking is so powerful. Exactly, that is 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:24.920 just sucking all of that in the same thing has 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.440 been said about the film Event Horizon, but which I 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.840 enjoyed when it came out. I have nothing against fun flip, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.200 but this makes it difficult to measure any sort of 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.280 data around an event horizon or around a black hole. Yeah, 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.920 scientists argue that this event horizon could constitute a perfect 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.480 circle or sphere. But we've have to. We've yet to 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.360 prove that out, and uh, and not everyone is convinced 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.920 we'd find perfection there either. In fact, according to Stephen Hawking, 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:55.760 as summarized by Daily Galaxy, quantum effects around the black 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.800 hole may cause space time to fluctuate too widely for 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:04.920 a sharp boundary surface to exist. So, I mean, especially 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:06.760 with something like a black hole, you're getting into this 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.760 weird idea you're trying to You're trying to find this 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.960 this ideal circle in a thing that is existing in 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:18.280 a curious state of space and time. Um, can, well, 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.960 can we find it there? Maybe not? Well, it also 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.720 puts an asterisk to this idea that a perfect circle 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:27.280 doesn't exist in nature because in this mathematical model, it 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:32.000 has to write could again. But but then it gets 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:33.920 that you get into the discussion of does a circle 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.440 is a circle something from a mathematical understanding, does it 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.680 exist for an extended period of time? Does exist in 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.360 time and space? Uh? You really get into the deep 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.080 end of trying to to apply this this mathematical model 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.160 of perfection to a universe that seems to have a 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.600 lot of mathematical imperfection in it. All right, let's put 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.720 that back on the shelf for a second and just 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:01.200 let it sort of reconstitute itself. Um, and go back 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.840 to John Adam, who was writing in a National Geographic 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.200 article about this idea of circles and saying that one 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.760 of the reasons why they're so prevalent in nature is 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:16.560 because things form circularly, because it's really the most efficient 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:22.800 way to maximize or even minimize specific processes under certain constraints. 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.719 And in mathematics, he said, a circle allows for the 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.440 greatest area for any given perimeter and the least perimeter 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.520 for any given area, compared to other polygons. Yeah, I 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.000 mean it comes back to the gravity example. As nassas 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:40.400 is drawn into a point of gravitational attraction like that, 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.760 it's going to form a sphere. It's going to form 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:47.160 a circle, because that's the most democratic form of of 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.919 of particle assimilation and the most efficient form. Right. So, 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.320 even if you're looking at say a sunflower, and you're 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.520 looking at the middle of it, which appears to be 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.440 a perfect circle, and then you peer in a little 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.560 bit more, you see thousands of more little perfect circles 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.560 comprising that surface area, because this is the most efficient 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:07.880 way for it to store its energy and to try 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:12.920 to um live as an organism. Yeah, it's also the easiest. 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.040 I'm just thinking it's probably the easiest form to get 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.320 people to form into. You know, you think of children 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.160 in an elementary school environment and the teacher says, all right, everyone, 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.680 form a circle or even a semicircle. That's going to 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:28.040 be far more an efficient exercise than Okay, let's form 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.840 a square, let's form a triangle, you know, because it's 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.720 it's just easier to to to picture that form in 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.600 our mind and then adhere to it. Well, and there's 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.840 this idea that maybe there's a sort of again deeply 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.520 rooted since at least in humans, that you would congregate 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.960 in that way. And I'm thinking about the study from 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.600 two thousand and nine and Max Plank Institute in which 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.280 they took volunteers and they asked them to walk from 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.080 point A to point B. But this was in the dark, 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.080 there were no navigational cues, and what they found is 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.920 that people over and over again walked in circles. So, 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.639 you know, without these sort of cues around us, that's 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.160 what we do, that that trope. We're walking in circles, right, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.800 you don't have enough data and what metaphorically point it 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.440 because you end up returning to the place from which 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.920 you left. So right, and then even to go back 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:23.760 to that sun flour example, if you were to cut 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:25.760 the stem of that and look at it on a 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.920 cellular level, you would see again that these materials are 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.720 congregating in circular fashions, or what looked to be circular fashions. 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.520 They're not perfect circles, but again, it's the most efficient 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.879 way to transfer energy in this organism. All right, well, 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.600 we're gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.680 more on circles, not only natural circles, but man made circles, 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.280 man made spears. How close did those come to perfection? 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.440 All right, we are back. I'm gonna throw this little 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:06.760 stat out there. Three ten millions of an inch from perfection. 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:12.119 What man made object has come so very close to 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:19.160 a perfect circle? Oh um, the PEPSI logo, target logo. God, 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:24.320 I'm drawn a blank. Then NASA's courts giroscopic rotor. Yes, 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.600 these were built for NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft. And uh, 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.840 these quarts gyros do, in fact standard the most perfect 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.760 man made spheres ever created. Landing less than again, ten 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.879 millions of an inch from perfection, which we created not 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.400 just to show off how amazing we were, but because 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.359 they were necessary too for the inner workings of this 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.800 particular gravity probe. This gravity probe was actually testing the 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:52.320 theory of general relativity shows up again. So they needed 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:57.240 again something that was as precise as it possibly could be, 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.400 because being off by anything larger than on one hundred 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.480 billions of a degree every hour would ruin the experiment. Yeah, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.320 so it's crazy, even when an organization like NASA throws 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.280 it's you know, it's best scientific minds at the problem 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.040 of of creating a perfect circle or a perfect sphere 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.000 can't quite reach perfection on it. No, but the Stanford 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.840 team that worked on the spheres says, only neutron stars 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.400 are more spherical than what they created. There's a little 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.679 boasting there, So there's they're they're saying, well that the 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.280 universe can do a little better, but just barely. So. Yeah, 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.320 they're saying the neutron stars they're showoffie and all with 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:41.439 their collapsing neus becoming a tighter and tighter ball of 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:46.159 spherical energy. Alright, well, let's turn then back to the 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.359 word world of mathematics, because that is the only place 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.800 that we're actually finding this perfect circle. And let's discuss 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.520 exactly what it is. Okay. A circle is, of course 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.640 the set of points in a plane that are equal 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.480 distant from a given point. So for a circle to 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:04.720 be perfect, you need all of those points in the 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.480 circle's circumference to match up exactly. And for all those 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.359 points to match up exactly, you need this precision to 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.199 remain constant no matter how closely you looked the particles, 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:19.760 the cells, the atoms, and are these points stationary or 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.000 are they in motion? As so you can see where 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.240 the search really becomes maddening because you apply everything we 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.480 just said to that that circle that you traced around 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.600 a soda. Can you apply it to the sign, You 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.480 apply it to the to the electron particle, you will 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:37.440 apply it to to the human eye, any of these things. Then, Yeah, 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:39.800 if you look closely enough, are you going to see flux? 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.520