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Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explain

math.stackexchange.com Reference Curated collections & archives Mathematics & science Candidate
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Resurfaced independently across 4 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
4
submitters
4
observed span
2014–2026
peak thread · 78 comments
560 pts
latest 20+ return · 2021-09-11
277 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

For those who are hungry for more, Lucas Vieira Barbosa (LucasVB) has made a lot of great such illustrations for Wikipedia over the years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:LucasVB/Gallery

pyduan·560-point thread·

This doesn't involve traditional mathematics concepts, but I'm relying heavily on visual explanations in my mathematical explorations of discrete geometry, which you can find at https://quivergeometry.net. Probably the cleanest examples of where visualization makes things very clear is explaining the groupoid structure of paths [1], and how to generate lattice quivers [2]. But I also enjoy some of the aesthetic qualities of the sections on coverings [3] (intricate), vertex colorings [4] (very colorful!), toroidal…

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
843

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
95

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2014-04-06Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explainFirst breakout · Best threadaaronbrethorst56078
2017-01-27Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explainfelipebueno30
2021-09-11Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explainLatest 20+ point returnsamdung27717
2026-06-04"Visually math concepts which are easy to explain"aragonite30