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Hilbert's Curve: Is infinite math useful?

43 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this explainer4 months2017–2024 score 4.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended as the best visual introduction to Hilbert curves, which come up in indexing, image layout and dimensionality mapping.

3Blue1Brown explains space-filling curves and the Hilbert curve, and how infinite mathematical constructions connect to finite, practical approximations. It touches on mapping between dimensions and sensory ideas.

“This is a great video on the Hilbert curve” (HN, 2017)

1 strong recommendations · 3 recommendations · 2 citations · Explainers · intro

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@joelg Oct 2017 Recommends
on HN thread My Sudden Synaesthesia
This is actually exactly the topic of the 3Blue1Brown video on Hilbert Curves: [this video] Space-filling curves are a sort of optimal mapping strategy for compressing two dimensions down into one.
Covers space-filling curves as optimal 2D to 1D mapping.
@Cieplak Jan 2024 Recommends
on HN thread Visualizing Ext4
There's a command-line utility called pixd [1] that generates similar data visualizations on the command line. That said, it only shows static representations of binary data and is not nearly as cool as buredoranna's animated gifs showing filesystem changes over time. It can be helpful to plot these sorts of pixel arrangements on a Hilbert curve, rather than plotting pixels line by line. I learned this trick from a Ghidra plugin called cantordust [2]. 3blue1brown offers some mathematical intuition for the effectiveness of a Hilbert curve pixel arrangement [3]. [1] [link] [2] [link] [3] [this video]
Mathematical intuition for why Hilbert curve pixel arrangement works.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@bhl May 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Onion Curve: A Space Filling Curve with Near-Optimal Clustering (2018)
On a related note, does anyone know of a good reference of applying space filling curves as a method of dimensionality reduction? It seems like an intuitive idea since Hilbert curves [1] map points from a higher to a lower dim space but tries to preserve distance as well. [1] 3Blue1Brown video on Hilbert curves: [this video]
@vankessel Aug 2019 Cites it
on HN thread The Human Brain Can Create Structures in Up to 11 Dimensions
That sounds like it would be very interesting. And while we can't extend our senses just yet, we may be able to swap them. I'm very curious if anyone has tried to use a space-filling Hilbert curve to transform vision into audio and let their brain adjust to it like suggested in this video [this video]
Suggests using a Hilbert curve to map vision to audio.

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