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Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by MalbertKerman on Sunday July 06, 2025 @12:44PM (#44482182)
The jump from spherical harmonics to eigenfunctions on a general mesh, and the specific example mesh chosen, might be the finest mathematical joke I've seen this decade.
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by sixo on Sunday July 06, 2025 @01:26PM (#44482496)
Would you explain the joke for the rest of us?
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by MalbertKerman on Sunday July 06, 2025 @01:40PM (#44482612)
It's quietly reversing the traditional "We approximate the cow to be a sphere" and showing how the spherical math can, in fact, be generalized to solutions on the cow.
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by sixo on Sunday July 06, 2025 @01:57PM (#44482722)
oh. I did not interpret that blob as a cow. Thanks.
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by kazinator on Monday July 07, 2025 @05:38AM (#44488443)
In the Geometry Processing paragraph (second last, above Further Reading), there are clearly cow shapes: four legs, head with ears and horns.
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by xeonmc on Sunday July 06, 2025 @01:29PM (#44482521)
Spherical Haromics approximating Spherical Cows?
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by dark__paladin on Sunday July 06, 2025 @01:37PM (#44482592)
assume spherical cow
Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by gsf_emergency_2 on Sunday July 06, 2025 @07:59PM (#44485303)
Related to this footnote in TFA?

>If you’re alarmed by the fact that the set of all real functions does not form a HILBERT SPACE, you’re probably not in the target audience of this post."

Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44481933

Re:Functions Are Vectors (2023) by Y_Y on Monday July 07, 2025 @05:22AM (#44488343)
If you're wondering what a Hilbert space, know that you're in good company.

> Dr. von Neumann, ich möchte gerne wissen, was ist denn eigentlich ein Hilbertscher Raum? (Dr. von Neumann, I'd would really like to know, just what exactly is a Hilbert space?)

Asked to John von Neumann to David Hilbert at a lecture.

https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Hilbert+space#fn:1

I'd like to add, as a physicist by training, that anything can be a Hilbert space if you wish hard enough. You can even use results about countable vector spaces if you need them!