Spherical harmonic functions look like balloon dogs to me - at least the simpler ones! All those rounded lobes, pinched off in the center!
These functions are described by the distance of the balloon dog surface from the origin, as this "radius" varies with two angles - the co-ordinates of a point on the surface of a sphere.
But I do not show the shiny surface of the balloon. Instead, I am drawing contour lines on the balloon dog! Then I am nesting lots of these balloon dog meshes of gradually changing color.
I watch the supernova explode from my spaceship, orbiting around it to find an interesting viewpoint to take a picture!
Created with custom javascript code based on threejs. No AI.
Elke Stangl (elkement) (she/her) is an Austrian physics PhD working as an engineer. Her mathematical art is borne out of her life-long passion for the theoretical underpinnings of her craft. She is creating virtual three-dimensional structures from mathematical functions – digitally with code or with ruler and compass, using.. Read more…