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show/hide this revision's text 3 edited to improve anonymity and remove unacademic language

This is a quote from a dear friend (who's a double major in mathematics and physics at the honors college of the City University of New York and told me tonight he wanted to remain anonymous,hence the edit to this posting) asking the rest of us on Facebook. I gave him some half-assed response,but half-baked response, but the truth is I don't really know enough about this to give him a good response.

So why ARE they so complicated? The topologists here want to give a few responses so I can give him some feedback to his desperate query?

show/hide this revision's text 2 Removed my friend's name by his request.

This is a quote from my a dear friend and future Nobel nominee Arthur Parzygnat (who's a double major in mathematics and physics at the honors college of the City University of New York and told me tonight he wanted to remain anonymous,hence the edit to this posting) asking the rest of us on Facebook. I gave him some half-assed response,but the truth is I don't really know enough about this to give him a good response.

So why ARE they so complicated? The topologists here want to give a few responses so I can give him some feedback to his desperate query?

show/hide this revision's text 1 [made Community Wiki]

"Why the heck are the homotopy groups of the sphere so damn complicated?"

This is a quote from my dear friend and future Nobel nominee Arthur Parzygnat (double major in mathematics and physics at the honors college of the City University of New York) asking the rest of us on Facebook. I gave him some half-assed response,but the truth is I don't really know enough about this to give him a good response.

So why ARE they so complicated? The topologists here want to give a few responses so I can give him some feedback to his desperate query?