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edited Mar 16, 2016 at 11:04

André Henriques

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A piece of conformal fabric. A conformal fabric is some membrane-like material that can stretch and unstretch, yet locally at any given point, only by equal amounts along a direction and a perpendicular to it. Such fabric you could stretch to any planar shape; if you stretch it from a circle to a square, say, you'd have found the Riemann mapping that maps a circle to a square! So holding a piece of conformal fabric and playing with it you'd at last get some "feel" for what the Riemann mapping theorem is all about.

Unfortunately, basic as it is, I could not find where one could get a piece of this valuable material. I'm not quite sure why - I'm not asking for something that depends on the axiom of choice, or that may live only in 4D, or for the moon. I can easily imagine holding a piece of conformal fabric, yet I have no clue how to make one.

[Edit by A. Henriques]: I think that this link might be showing exactly that material: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35818924

A piece of conformal fabric. A conformal fabric is some membrane-like material that can stretch and unstretch, yet locally at any given point, only by equal amounts along a direction and a perpendicular to it. Such fabric you could stretch to any planar shape; if you stretch it from a circle to a square, say, you'd have found the Riemann mapping that maps a circle to a square! So holding a piece of conformal fabric and playing with it you'd at last get some "feel" for what the Riemann mapping theorem is all about.

Unfortunately, basic as it is, I could not find where one could get a piece of this valuable material. I'm not quite sure why - I'm not asking for something that depends on the axiom of choice, or that may live only in 4D, or for the moon. I can easily imagine holding a piece of conformal fabric, yet I have no clue how to make one.

A piece of conformal fabric. A conformal fabric is some membrane-like material that can stretch and unstretch, yet locally at any given point, only by equal amounts along a direction and a perpendicular to it. Such fabric you could stretch to any planar shape; if you stretch it from a circle to a square, say, you'd have found the Riemann mapping that maps a circle to a square! So holding a piece of conformal fabric and playing with it you'd at last get some "feel" for what the Riemann mapping theorem is all about.

Unfortunately, basic as it is, I could not find where one could get a piece of this valuable material. I'm not quite sure why - I'm not asking for something that depends on the axiom of choice, or that may live only in 4D, or for the moon. I can easily imagine holding a piece of conformal fabric, yet I have no clue how to make one.

[Edit by A. Henriques]: I think that this link might be showing exactly that material: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35818924

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created May 2, 2011 at 2:05

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A piece of conformal fabric. A conformal fabric is some membrane-like material that can stretch and unstretch, yet locally at any given point, only by equal amounts along a direction and a perpendicular to it. Such fabric you could stretch to any planar shape; if you stretch it from a circle to a square, say, you'd have found the Riemann mapping that maps a circle to a square! So holding a piece of conformal fabric and playing with it you'd at last get some "feel" for what the Riemann mapping theorem is all about.

Unfortunately, basic as it is, I could not find where one could get a piece of this valuable material. I'm not quite sure why - I'm not asking for something that depends on the axiom of choice, or that may live only in 4D, or for the moon. I can easily imagine holding a piece of conformal fabric, yet I have no clue how to make one.