Open source video game asset Updated 2025-07-16
The beauty of mathematics Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli intends to move his beauty list here little by little: github.com/cirosantilli/mathematics/blob/master/beauty.md
The most beautiful things in mathematics are results that are:
- simple to state but hard to prove:
- Fermat's Last Theorem
- number of unknown rationality, e.g. is rational?
- transcendental number conjectures, e.g. is transcendental?
- basically any conjecture involving prime numbers:
- many combinatorial game questions, e.g.:
- surprising results: we had intuitive reasons to believe something as possible or not, but a theorem shatters that conviction and brings us on our knees, sometimes via pathological counter-examples. General surprise themes include:Lists:
- classification of potentially infinite sets like: compact manifolds, etc.
- problems that are more complicated in low dimensions than high like:
- generalized Poincaré conjectures. It is also fun to see how in many cases complexity peaks out at 4 dimensions.
- classification of regular polytopes
- unpredictable magic constants:
- why is the lowest dimension for an exotic sphere 7?
- why is 4 the largest degree of an equation with explicit solution? Abel-Ruffini theorem
- undecidable problems, especially simple to state ones:
- mortal matrix problem
- sharp frontiers between solvable and unsolvable are also cool:
- attempts at determining specific values of the Busy beaver function for Turing machines with a given number of states and symbols
- related to Diophantine equations:
- applications: make life easier and/or modeling some phenomena well, e.g. in physics. See also: explain how to make money with the lesson
Good lists of such problems Lists of mathematical problems.
Whenever Ciro Santilli learns a bit of mathematics, he always wonders to himself:Unfortunately, due to how man books are written, it is not really possible to reach insight without first doing a bit of memorization. The better the book, the more insight is spread out, and less you have to learn before reaching each insight.
Am I achieving insight, or am I just memorizing definitions?
Voltage transformer Updated 2025-07-16
Waring-Goldbach problem Updated 2025-07-16
It is exactly what you'd expect from the name, Waring was watching Netflix with Goldbach, when they suddenly came up with this.
Water Updated 2025-07-16
"Water" is the name for both:
- the chemical compound with chemical formula H2O
- the liquid phase of the chemical substance composed of the above chemical compound
Simplified phase diagram of water
. Source. Note the triple point and critical point visible. Phase diagrams are so cool! Christianism Updated 2025-07-16
Mathematics bibliography Updated 2025-07-16
Power engineering Updated 2025-07-16
Applications of power, we have to remember it is there to notice how awesome it is!
- lightning
- motors
- sending nad receiving communication signals
- computers, which in turn can do computations and improved communication
Probability Updated 2025-07-16
Scanning transmission electron microscopy Updated 2025-07-16
50,000,000x Magnification by AlphaPhoenix (2022)
Source. Stuff school should actually teach Updated 2025-07-16
Subquotient Updated 2025-07-16
As an overkill example, the happy family are subquotients of the monster group, but the monster group is simple.
Suikoden Updated 2025-07-16
Only many many years after playing it, after Ciro started getting more interested, did he learn that it was actually an adaptation of the Chinese mega-classic Water Margin.
"Suikoden" is the actual Japenese transliteration for the Chinese name of the original Water Margin novel.
The game puts great emphasis on the concept of the 108 Stars of Destiny, which never left Ciro's mind: making 108 allies, the main collectible of the game, allows you to make a more powerful alliance, and unlock better endings.
The old man lost his horse Updated 2025-07-16
Breakdown:
Instagram Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli is just too old to understand what the point of that website is compared to Twitter. There must be one, right?
Also, it is impossible to use it on the browser without a cell phone, similar critique as Section "Messaging software that force you to have a mobile phone" but a bit more aggravating, because, well, you would expect creators want people to see their stuff on a browser unlike private messages?
Peer authentication Updated 2025-07-16
Physics experiment without a decent modern video Updated 2025-07-16
The Old Quantum Theory by Dirk ter Haar (1967) Updated 2025-07-16
Quantum computing is hard because we want long coherence but fast control Updated 2025-07-16
Mentioned e.g. at:
These are two conflicting constraints:
- long coherence times: require isolation from external world, otherwise observation destroys quantum state
- fast control and readout: require coupling with external world
Referendum Updated 2025-07-16
There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.

