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First discovered by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano in 1890, a space-filling curve can theoretically expand endlessly without its path ever crossing itself to fill an infinite space. In a computer display, space-filling curves are limited by the number of pixels on a screen, but watching these fractal constructions extend isn’t just hypnotic – it’s also a helpful (if somewhat imperfect) demonstration of the enigmatic concept of infinity. To learn more about the mathematics of space-filling curves, watch Hilbert’s Curve, and the Usefulness of Infinite Results in a Finite World, also by 3Blue1Brown.
Video by 3Blue1Brown
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
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Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
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War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
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History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes
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Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
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Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
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The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes
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Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes