Talk:2121: Light Pollution

Small error in this comic. It's not possible to tile a sphere with just hexagons. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/749264/covering-earth-with-hexagonal-map-tiles AlanKilian (talk) 16:03, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Six triangles form a hexagon - just an explanation for people with less mathematical or geometric knowledge. --Dgbrt (talk) 16:17, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

but a indefinite large group of triangles doesn't automatically transform to hexagons, since it could be overlapping hexagons, or hexagons with their interim spaces filled up by triangles?--Lupo (talk) 16:29, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Look at that hexagons (consisting of six triangles), each fitting to the next, and you will understand that this is only possible in a plane but not in a sphere. --Dgbrt (talk) 16:37, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Yes, but if the triangles are not actually equilateral then they could form a sphere. And if the sphere is big enough (I think solar-system-surrouding or bigger counts) then you probably wouldn't be able to see it with the naked eye. Shamino (talk) 17:08, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

But can it form a basketball? Netherin5 (talk) 17:24, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Your eyes are making the hexagons up. Some triangles would be left over if you tried to make every group of 6 triangles a hexagon. Triangle arrays like this are commonly used in computer graphics, as they are the closest approximation to a sphere: https://mft-dev.dk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/icosahedron_frame_sub3.gif 162.158.79.185 17:25, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Not really. On a plane, there are only three tesselations made only of identical regular polygons: triangular tiling, square tiling or hexagonal tiling. But since a regular hexagon can be divided into six equilateral triangles, the tiling in the picture can be seen as both triangular and hexagonal. The leaving out you write about may have come from another tesselation which uses hexagons and triangles, the trihexagonal tiling. On a sphere, there's a completely different discussion as there's no tesselations, only approximations of them. -- Malgond (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

There is no way to know that the triangles shown are equilateral (in fact, as drawn here they're quite uneven). All 3D renderings are in fact assembled from uneven-sided triangles, including renderings attempting to approximate rounded surfaces. And yes, you can buy a ball tiled only with triangles; they're not even-sided, but you can't tell with the naked eye. Also, there is one roughly spherical shape tiled only with equilateral triangles: It's the shape found on a 20-sided die. Skyboxes intended to minimize viewing angle distortions use triangles that are very nearly, but not quite equilateral. In fact, all shapes that use flat planes to tile a sphere can be broken down into triangles of one degree of asymmetry or another. Your argument is invalid. ProphetZarquon (talk) 22:51, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Also note that we see just small part of sky there, so it's fully possible the few deformed/missing triangles are outside of what we see. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:49, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Oh man where are the conspiracy nuts from a few weeks ago ;-) Cgrimes85 (talk) 17:03, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Hey, I think this works like Beetlejuice. Shush. Don’t jinx it. Netherin5 (talk) 17:24, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Ok, I know most of the discussion is focused on the lattice, but are the ships a reference to something? LOTR maybe? Also there’s nothing about the title text at all, and the (more probable than LOTR) Lovecraft reference, considering the mentions of insanity, cosmic horror, and color. (I believe the book was Cool Air?) Netherin5 (talk) 17:24, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

I think it's notable that the world actually works this way. The sky is full of drones, satellites, nearcraft, and we basically can't see them, but they can freely observe us, transmit things to us, and drop things on us. 162.158.79.185 17:34, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

While there are drones, satellites and various tools astronauts dropped all around the sky, the reason we can't see them is simply size (they are too small), not light pollution. The features mentioned in strip are gigantic. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:49, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

I may be too nerdy, but my mind went to Spelljammer on this. 172.69.62.160 18:44, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

My thoughts exactly! it perfectly fits Spelljammer crystal spheres. I think it should be included in the explanation (and if not, then at least the source of the whole concept- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Spheres)

I went to the sky at the end of Thirteenth Floor. But the one image I can find suggests that was rectangular. Jordan Brown (talk) 21:47, 8 March 2019 (UTC)