Comments on: House of Gauss

House of Gauss

Kronos_to_Earth — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:29:43 -0800

"The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries." Very pretty, eerie, animated interpretations of the fields inhabit Semiconductor's "Magnetic Movie."

The Sun's very real field lines are featured in Semiconductor's 'Brilliant Noise', and there is more (non-magnet related) by the company.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:38:42 -0800

That's 1000% awesome.

By: wanderingmind

wanderingmind — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:37:12 -0800

Wow, very cool. I'm no physicist, though; would someone who knows about this stuff mind explaining to me what's going on here? I think I understand magnetic field lines, but what were the dancing black-and-magenta dots, and what was the device at the end that emanated glowing green spherical shapes that nullified the lines?

By: vrakatar

vrakatar — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:37:26 -0800

Lou Reed, eat your heart out. You too, Trent Reznor. Regarding Briliant Noise. I haven't watched the first one yet.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:41:51 -0800

If you wonder why EEs seem unusually prone to looking like crazy neckbeards... keep in mind this is how you begin to see the world.

By: pointilist

pointilist — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:44:39 -0800

Loved it.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:46:37 -0800

Very cool. But as far as I can tell, it isn't real.

By: sophist

sophist — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:54:55 -0800

Thanks, enjoyed this. Apparently it was sponsored by Animate Projects, who maintains a list of other great video projects they have funded. Some good stuff in there.

By: sluglicker

sluglicker — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:03:58 -0800

This is one of the most amazing posts I've seen here. I was going to eat some psilocybe azurescens tonight, but then, why bother?

By: sluglicker

sluglicker — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:09:01 -0800

But as far as I can tell, it isn't real. Oh, it's real, goddammit! It's real!

By: sluglicker

sluglicker — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:15:12 -0800

Or, for you old farts, it's Rael.

By: the Real Dan

the Real Dan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:25:22 -0800

The scientists are describing magnetic fields on the sun. The sounds are VLF morning chorus and "sferics". Here's the real deal on VLF and sferics Here are some real magnetic fields at work, on the sun, as seen by SOHO: erupting filament (Feb. 26-27, 2000)
Dancing and erupting filaments

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:20:24 -0800

I still don't exactly know what I just saw. I mean, there's this: Animated photographs, using sound-controlled CGI and 3D compositing. What does that mean, exactly. Anybody know? Otherwise and anyway, it's absolutely wonderful, and is the closest thing I've ever seen to certain visions (sometimes referred to as "hallucinations") I had many years ago while under the influence of certain chemicals or mushrooms.

By: Termite

Termite — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:29:18 -0800

Very good! But "Brilliant noise" would have been even better with some explanations of what we were seeing.

By: namagomi

namagomi — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:42:58 -0800

I just watched it yesterday. I love the colors and the playful attitude towards the subject.

By: xchmp

xchmp — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:47:52 -0800

Ah physics, if only you were all pretty pictures and not filled with equations that make my head hurt.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:58:35 -0800

...filled with equations that make my head hurt. Used to make my head hurt too, but then I sat down with a notebook, a pencil and a textbook and conquered it. Pretty awesome stuff. And what was that the woman said about "open field lines"? How can you have open magnetic field lines? Wouldn't that be equivalent to a monopole? I thought those didn't exist.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:04:14 -0800

I sat down with a notebook, a pencil and a textbook... ...and a calculator and an internet to ask questions of and a year of time.

By: talos

talos — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:17:58 -0800

"Magnetic movie" is awesome. "Brilliant noise", however, is an artifact you can start a Dark Sun Cult around - it's absolutely mesmerizing.

By: whatnotever

whatnotever — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:37:26 -0800

... open field lines ... I think she just meant field lines that go so far out that you can't "see" them curve back and return. On a certain scale, you can consider them open. There's a lot of art there, but the science is restricted to the audio. I'm not sure what the particles or blobs were supposed to be, but at least the magnetic field lines weren't very realistic. As one example, the magnetic field lines around the wires were popping in and out of the wires; magnetic fields around conducting wires are actually concentric circles around the wire. So the nerd in me seriously wants to see a video like this based on real physics. But this was still a very cool vision.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:58:19 -0800

What it means is that all that neat dancin' stuff was CGI. Not really real. For some reason many people on the net are seeing this and thinking there are literally pink and blue visible magnetic lines dancing around, like it's something you could step into a room somewhere and see some crazy, otherworldly magic science Akira auras. But yeah, it's just CGI.

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:22:29 -0800

So the nerd in me seriously wants to see a video like this based on real physics You can see the shapes of magentic fields with magnets and ferrofluid. Its really incredible how this stuff moves and the kinds of fields it makes. Not as Chris Cunningham sexy as this video but with a lot more beauty and symmetry. 26 bucks and you can do it at home.

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:38:09 -0800

Magnetic field tree.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:07:27 -0800

damn dirty ape: To be clear though, that's going to show the effects of the magnetic field, but in a round about way. Holding string between two points... it forms a curve due to a gravitational field. But that curve is more complex that the field lines.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:08:36 -0800

(Which is to say, cohesion and other interactions between the particles are signficant forces in the formation of those structures. Ferrofluid is so cool.)

By: quin

quin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:12:28 -0800

I just watched Brilliant Noise and now have this fear that I'm going to get a phone call telling me I have seven days to live.