Spheres Part 1
Original: Spheres Part 1 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title: THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
BY DR. TERENCE TAO AND ZACH WEINERSMITH
Panel 1:
Man with dark hair (the mathematician): "WHEN I TELL PEOPLE AT PARTIES THAT I'M A MATHEMATICIAN, THERE'S OFTEN AN AWKWARD PAUSE IN THE CONVERSATION, OR THE OBLIGATORY..."
Red-haired man: "OH, I WAS SOOOOO BAD AT MATH AT SCHOOL!"
Caption (between panels): THOUGH OCCASIONALLY YOU RUN INTO A MATH AND SCIENCE ENTHUSIAST WHO WANTS TO DISCUSS A RECENT DEVELOPMENT THEY HEARD IN THE NEWS...
Panel 2:
Woman with blue/teal hair: "OH MY GOSH, MY FRIENDS AND I CANNOT STOP TALKING ABOUT RECONSTRUCTING CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROTOCOLS FROM QUANTUM PRINCIPLES, AND... DO YOU WANT TO MOVE THIS CONVERSATION TO A WHITEBOARD?"
Caption: ...OR SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY HAD A GOOD EXPERIENCE IN THEIR MATH CLASSES AND WAS SOMEWHAT WISTFUL ABOUT NOT PURSUING IT.
Panel 3:
Older man (with a bottle): "I'LL ALWAYS THINK OF HADWIGER'S GRAPH THEORY CONJECTURE AS... THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY."
The mathematician: "THOSE ARE GOOD MOMENTS."
Caption: BUT, IN GENERAL, THE PUBLIC HAVE VERY LITTLE IDEA WHAT MATHEMATICS IS, AND WHAT MATHEMATICIANS ACTUALLY DO.
Caption: POPULAR CULTURE GIVES US SOME CARICATURE PORTRAYALS OF MATHEMATICIANS:
Panel 4 caption: THE TORTURED GENIUS...
Woman: "I CANNOT KNOW LOVE, BUT BY GOD I WILL KNOW IF EVERY POLYOMINO WITH AN AREA DIVISIBLE BY SIX CAN TILE A HEXAGON!"
Small caption: (TORTUREDNESS RATES AMONG MATHEMATICIANS ARE, IN FACT, AVERAGE)
Panel 5 caption: THE SAVANT WITH STRANGE MENTAL POWERS...
(A man with floating equations around his head: e^(iπ) = -1, sum of 1/n^2 = π^2/6, Ax = λx, x ∈ Δ_n, ∇²ψ + k²ψ = 0, P(A|B) = P(B|A)P(A)/P(B), E[u_i|s_i], etc.)
Small caption: (IF YOU SEE EQUATIONS FLOATING BEFORE YOUR EYES, PLEASE CONSULT AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST)
Panel 6 caption: THE ECCENTRIC PROFESSOR...
Man riding a unicycle, blowing flames from a trombone: "I WORK IN INFORMATION THEORY, UNICYCLES, AND FLAMING TROMBONES."
Small caption: (ONLY TRUE OF CLAUDE SHANNON)
Caption: FROM MATH CLASS, YOU MIGHT'VE GOTTEN THE IMPRESSION WE'RE SOME SORT OF SORCERERS, CASTING SPELLS FULL OF STRANGE SYMBOLS AND JARGON TO DEFEAT ABSTRACT ENEMIES FROM ANOTHER PLANE OF EXISTENCE.
Final panel:
A robed sorcerer figure holding a flaming staff, facing a spiky yellow landscape: "BY THE POWER OF FOURIER, I BANISH YOU FROM FUNCTION SPACE TO FREQUENCY SPACE!"
Footer banner: PART 1 OF 5!
Button: PRESS FORWARD TO CONTINUE! (with an orange arrow and circle)
BY DR. TERENCE TAO AND ZACH WEINERSMITH
Panel 1:
Man with dark hair (the mathematician): "WHEN I TELL PEOPLE AT PARTIES THAT I'M A MATHEMATICIAN, THERE'S OFTEN AN AWKWARD PAUSE IN THE CONVERSATION, OR THE OBLIGATORY..."
Red-haired man: "OH, I WAS SOOOOO BAD AT MATH AT SCHOOL!"
Caption (between panels): THOUGH OCCASIONALLY YOU RUN INTO A MATH AND SCIENCE ENTHUSIAST WHO WANTS TO DISCUSS A RECENT DEVELOPMENT THEY HEARD IN THE NEWS...
Panel 2:
Woman with blue/teal hair: "OH MY GOSH, MY FRIENDS AND I CANNOT STOP TALKING ABOUT RECONSTRUCTING CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROTOCOLS FROM QUANTUM PRINCIPLES, AND... DO YOU WANT TO MOVE THIS CONVERSATION TO A WHITEBOARD?"
Caption: ...OR SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY HAD A GOOD EXPERIENCE IN THEIR MATH CLASSES AND WAS SOMEWHAT WISTFUL ABOUT NOT PURSUING IT.
Panel 3:
Older man (with a bottle): "I'LL ALWAYS THINK OF HADWIGER'S GRAPH THEORY CONJECTURE AS... THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY."
The mathematician: "THOSE ARE GOOD MOMENTS."
Caption: BUT, IN GENERAL, THE PUBLIC HAVE VERY LITTLE IDEA WHAT MATHEMATICS IS, AND WHAT MATHEMATICIANS ACTUALLY DO.
Caption: POPULAR CULTURE GIVES US SOME CARICATURE PORTRAYALS OF MATHEMATICIANS:
Panel 4 caption: THE TORTURED GENIUS...
Woman: "I CANNOT KNOW LOVE, BUT BY GOD I WILL KNOW IF EVERY POLYOMINO WITH AN AREA DIVISIBLE BY SIX CAN TILE A HEXAGON!"
Small caption: (TORTUREDNESS RATES AMONG MATHEMATICIANS ARE, IN FACT, AVERAGE)
Panel 5 caption: THE SAVANT WITH STRANGE MENTAL POWERS...
(A man with floating equations around his head: e^(iπ) = -1, sum of 1/n^2 = π^2/6, Ax = λx, x ∈ Δ_n, ∇²ψ + k²ψ = 0, P(A|B) = P(B|A)P(A)/P(B), E[u_i|s_i], etc.)
Small caption: (IF YOU SEE EQUATIONS FLOATING BEFORE YOUR EYES, PLEASE CONSULT AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST)
Panel 6 caption: THE ECCENTRIC PROFESSOR...
Man riding a unicycle, blowing flames from a trombone: "I WORK IN INFORMATION THEORY, UNICYCLES, AND FLAMING TROMBONES."
Small caption: (ONLY TRUE OF CLAUDE SHANNON)
Caption: FROM MATH CLASS, YOU MIGHT'VE GOTTEN THE IMPRESSION WE'RE SOME SORT OF SORCERERS, CASTING SPELLS FULL OF STRANGE SYMBOLS AND JARGON TO DEFEAT ABSTRACT ENEMIES FROM ANOTHER PLANE OF EXISTENCE.
Final panel:
A robed sorcerer figure holding a flaming staff, facing a spiky yellow landscape: "BY THE POWER OF FOURIER, I BANISH YOU FROM FUNCTION SPACE TO FREQUENCY SPACE!"
Footer banner: PART 1 OF 5!
Button: PRESS FORWARD TO CONTINUE! (with an orange arrow and circle)
Alt text
An SMBC comic titled "THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES," by Dr. Terence Tao and Zach Weinersmith, laid out as a tall vertical strip. In the first panel a dark-haired mathematician tells a red-haired man at a party that admitting he's a mathematician usually gets an awkward pause or the line "OH, I WAS SOOOOO BAD AT MATH AT SCHOOL!" A caption notes you occasionally meet an enthusiast instead: a blue-haired woman excitedly raves about reconstructing cryptographic protocols from quantum principles and asks to move the chat to a whiteboard, and an older man wistfully calls Hadwiger's graph theory conjecture "the one that got away," to which the mathematician replies "THOSE ARE GOOD MOMENTS." Captions then say the public has little idea what mathematicians do, so pop culture gives caricatures. Three caricature panels follow: "THE TORTURED GENIUS" — a brooding woman vowing to learn whether every polyomino divisible by six can tile a hexagon (footnote: torturedness rates are in fact average); "THE SAVANT WITH STRANGE MENTAL POWERS" — a man with glowing equations floating around his head (footnote: if you actually see floating equations, consult an ophthalmologist); and "THE ECCENTRIC PROFESSOR" — a man riding a unicycle while blasting flames from a trombone, saying he works in "information theory, unicycles, and flaming trombones" (footnote: only true of Claude Shannon). A final caption jokes that math class makes mathematicians look like sorcerers, illustrated by a robed figure with a flaming staff declaring "BY THE POWER OF FOURIER, I BANISH YOU FROM FUNCTION SPACE TO FREQUENCY SPACE!" while facing a spiky yellow landscape. A footer banner reads "PART 1 OF 5!" with a "PRESS FORWARD TO CONTINUE!" button. There is no votey.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.