Cliff Pickover

Ask me anything. I will be happy to answer some of your questions, and will try to reply to a portion of your questions below in the coming days.

Programmer found dead in the shower. Shampoo instructions were: "Lather, rinse, repeat."

Physics. Math. → Quantum levitation on a Möbius strip track. Credit: youtube.com/watch?v=Vxror-…. I didn’t upload this video to 𝕏. I’m pointing to a video within the 𝕏 stream of “Bluntly Put Philosopher (BPP)”, 𝕏 ID “SocraticScribe” (Mar 19, 2026).

Free math book in PDF format: "Recreations in Mathematics," by H. E. Licks. Includes a variety of mathematical puzzles (related to number theory, geometric illusions, algebraic tricks, ancient civilizations, practical examples, etc.) Link: djm.cc/library/Recrea…

Mathematics, geometry, nature. → Almost reminds me of a fractal marine alien. Credit: I didn’t upload this video to 𝕏. I’m pointing to a video residing in the 𝕏 stream of “Nature is Amazing”, 𝕏 ID “AMAZlNGNATURE” (Mar 19, 2026).

Physics. Education. Reality in a Nutshell. From "Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum," by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman.

Mathematics. Pattern formation. The web of time. "Every minute, draw a line from the end of the minute hand, to the end of the hour hand. This 11-lobed pattern emerges." By Matt Henderson, @matthen2, used with permission.

This is a math joke. Source: tinyurl.com/yrysb577

Math. This mystery space-filling curve is a variant of Hilbert's curve, built from epicycles. Watch it evolve as more harmonics are added. Source: I created this animation using Hopperpop's Epicycle Drawer, an interactive tool: hopperpop.github.io/EpicDrawer/

Mathematics. Free book PDF: open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/…. "Math in Society" is a college-level course for liberal arts majors. Table of Contents: Fractals Graph Theory Problem Solving Voting Theory Weighted Voting Apportionment Fair Division Scheduling Growth Models Finance Statistics Describing Data Probability Sets Historical Counting Systems Cryptography Logic

This is a math meme, circulating widely on the Web.

Mathematics.

Perception, reality. → The spinning dodecahedron seems to disappear when you pause the video. Interactive version: matthen.github.io/animations/#/n… Code: github.com/matthen/animat… By Matt Henderson, @matthen2, used with permission.

Math. Spinning. Perception. → Ant-like creatures come alive. Credit: youtube.com/watch?v=JlkX0y…. I didn’t upload this video to 𝕏. I’m pointing to a video residing in the 𝕏 stream of “木佐貫洋平 プロカリンバ奏者”, 𝕏 ID “LimbaTrip” (Mar 19, 2026).

Mathematics. Free book PDF. "Introduction to Probability," 2nd edition, by Charles M. Grinstead and J. Laurie Snell. "Probability theory began in seventeenth century France when the two great French mathematicians, Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat, corresponded over two problems from games of chance. Problems like those Pascal and Fermat solved continued to influence such early researchers as Huygens, Bernoulli, and DeMoivre in establishing a mathematical theory of probability. Today, probability theory is a well-established branch of mathematics that finds applications in every area of scholarly activity from music to physics, and in daily experience from weather prediction to predicting the risks of new medical treatments." Link: open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/…

Physics, number of dimensions, universe, reality. Life explained. Adapted from Wikimedia, Max Tegmark, Class. Quantum Grav. 14 (1997) L69–L75. Link: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spac…

Mathematics. Biblically Accurate Angel. (Just kidding, This is a Gumowski-Mira strange attractor arising from a discrete dynamical system.) Visualization byア, @yuruyurau, ｱ_ﾅ/A-na5, a-na5.tumblr.com

Mathematics. Each integer from 1 to a million is represented by one million labeled stones in a bag. Merlin the magician randomly selects a stone and replaces it. How many stones must he select in order for the probability of selecting any particular stone to be at least 1/2?

Mathematics. ❄️ π makes an appearance, and helps us shiver in awe. ❄️ The area under this curve is equal to the square root of π.

Some people perceive the black hole to expand, as they stare at this image. By Akiyoshi KITAOKA, @AkiyoshiKitaoka, ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/inde…, Used with permission.

Mathematics. A mathematician emerges from a cave, hands you the slip of paper below, and asks "Is the distance from one real number to the next greater than zero?" What is your response?