This man literally spoke about dots on paper for 7 minutes and I paid attention to this more than anything else this entire year.

Tim is Merely Demonstrating 1% of his Power here.

Interesting - didn't expect that something such simple could have that impressing effect. Thanks Tim.

My science teacher in grade 8 or 9 did this demonstration for us! He showed that the paper expanded evenly; the angles and relative distances between the dots didn't change, the pattern was identical, it's just that one paper is slightly bigger. And yet, if you line the papers up so that one dot matched (like the ring in the last example here), you can see that the nearer dots to it stayed mostly the same, while the further dots moved quite a bit. He then told us that's a great analogy for the expansion of the universe, and why it's possible for objects to appear to move faster than light away from us. The universe expands evenly everywhere, and so distant things move away from us very quickly, while things we can observe nearby (like our own galaxy) stay pretty close. I remembered it both as a very eye opening lesson, and a super fun visual, and sure enough it still holds up!

@4:15 you begin to see what is known as a Moiré Effect when two identical patterns (or nearly identical patterns) are superimposed upon one another. If you move them you can achieve an apparent motion and/or a blinking effect. Sensation and Perception was my favorite class in psychology.

Tim never disappoints. This is excellent!

The fact that the center changes when you move it around is really awesome :o

Hey Tim. even though you never became a famous professional magician, I consider you something very close to that. I consider you a full member of a very old and small club that includes Martin Gardner, Harry Lorrayne, Dai Vernon, Karl Fulves - and more recently Ricky Jay, Michael Close. (sorry to others I can't remember at the moment). You may not be a sleight of hand expert, but your contribution is legendary and you stand among those greats imo. I am honored to know you and have a chance to comment here. God Bless you.

Plot twist: Tim is actually playing around with infinite multiverses and he’s just hiding it from us

From the opening credits to the program itself, this video is making me feel nostalgic because it reminds me of the type of programming I’d see on public television here in the states back in the day. Especially when public television would show educational programming from the UK. I’m digging this.

Tim, you're the best. I literally used to watch your toy demonstrations back in undergraduate studies years ago. I'm so glad you're still at it!

This man is like a national treasure, I love each of the demonstrations of things he shows us, and the lessons he teaches! This demonstrates the expansion of our universe and how everything is constantly moving in the depths of space.

That’s way better than I thought. Could be a great teaching tool too.

This is literally the coolest thing I have seen today! Thanks Tim!

This is one of the coolest, simplest, most complex things I've ever seen. What a great way to show that the center of the universe is wherever you are.

I managed to get this to work in Photoshop too! You can just drop down random noise, do some contrast and brightness to make fewer spots and brighter ones, duplicate, then transform! What's really cool is that you can actually watch the center change as you move the layer. Doing a size reduction makes it even more interesting. You start getting a clear diagonal movement of the center with size reduction and a turn.

You can do this on photo editing software like photoshop or something similar as well! Create an empty layer over your white background, place the dots on the new transparent layer, duplicate the layer, then rotate the new duplicated layer and you will achieve the same effect at your desired pivot point!

I was hooked from the first couple seconds of the video, wondering "what on Earth is Tim up to here?", And I was by no means disappointed. Well done Tim and the crew, my favorite videos of yours are definitely ones like this that provoke a bit of thought.

Tim can make even dots on a piece of paper interesting

Hey Tim, I'm a math major. If you work with sheets of infinite size, as long as you either rotate or upscale even a little bit, you'll always find a point that lines up with itself - a "black hole" if you will.

You can also do this on a paint program: just make the first layer, duplicate it and experiment with angles and positioning. Just tried it and it works fantastic!

I'm glad this dude is still around after the last few years took so many older folks from us. The world will be a little darker when he leaves us. Such wholesomeness and simple charm is so very rare.

Tim has discovered the analog origins of 3D animation. Never change, Tim.

As a wise man once said: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand, and a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand , and Eternity in an hour."

I love this! Tadashi Tokieda did a fantastic video on Numberphile about the mathematics behind these patterns

I love this bc it's not really trying to teach me anything, it's just "hey, isn't this neat?"

It brings me such joy that these videos are still produced, love Tim and all of his many collection!

This is truly marvelous, I had never seen such effects before! And to think, that it's so accessible and quite simple to achieve, what a spectacular trick.

So simplistic but so fascinating thank you Tim

This reminds me of classic programs that were fun and engaging without much need for anything over the top. The presenter Tim has a great way about him, really draws people in.

It's insane how good our brains are at detecting patterns in random dots.

What an interesting video! From a mathematical point of view, you showed a way of visualizing some transformations of the plane: Translations, rotations, dilations and the combinations between them. We were able to imagine the path a point would follow under the action of these transformations (lines, circles, spirals...)

Could watch Tim do a video on anything and would enjoy it, great video as usual, guys.

I Remembered I watched these videos several years ago, I'm really glad you're still making them 😁

Such a simple yet beautiful phenomenon, no CGI needed

This had to be rewatched. There is some fabulous stuff on my subscription channels this week. This is DEFINITELY one to revisit, and ideas to try out! Extra nice one Tim. 🌟🌟👍👍

So cool! I wonder what kind of effects you could make with multiple layered acetate sheets? Or what about different colored sheets or even gradients or shapes? Different colored dots? Probably some neat effects you could make if you programmatically printed out some designs. We need a part two trying these! 😊

Such a simple yet amazing effect!

This new intro is actually fantastic. Great job to whoever has made it

What a simple, yet interesting way to create space/galaxy backgrounds! Thanks for the explanation

I could see doing this with two or more duplicate layers in Photoshop. Great stuff, thank you!

Beautiful stuff, still providing us with wonder after all these years Tim! ❤

Nice! I saw something like that explained in a book about fractals, when rotation or different scales are superposed. Patterns appear from chaos.

I think you could get some really beautiful effects by doing something like this with different colors! You could also probably use different shapes besides dots!

Absolutely wonderful the little (or big) worlds our minds can create!

This is so simple yet so cool it feels like arcane forbidden knowledge

That's a really cool pair of flat motionless planes!

This is a demonstration of how relativity is responsible for the harmonious context of nature amongst every level of the cosmos. Also, this is like some of the best Unintentional ASMR. I think its so good because its like someone talking to you about something that they really enjoy and its sort of like when you're hanging out in class and someone is humming and drawing next to you. Its comforting

What a paradox! Man holds infinity in the palms of his hands.

You are absolutely amazing in so many different ways and you have always brought me joy every time I see one of your videos and I hope you are around for much much longer.

I have been enlightened. Everything is so interconnected so simply yet can be studied with so complex sciences

That is very cool, I instantly started wondering how I could motorize the transparent sheet to make some kinetic art out of this, thanks for sharing!

This was awsome! One of the best videos of this channel! 😊

You could apply this concept to plotter art actually . In a drawing app, add in a variety of shapes of throughout the page and simply copy that result and rotate it. You could experiment with layering, size, randomness, colors etc. then just have your plotter draw the whole thing on paper.

I love your work! It is amazing and I learn something each time I watch one. I'm 70yrs old and tell my grandkids that when you stop learning you might as well be a rock. Thank you! Your toys and ideas you bring us are a blessing. I wish I could send you the wind up Mickey Mouse piano playing mouse and band my father had. It was very old ,but worked great.

To keep the curiosity of a child through a lifetime is amazing.

This is very neat to see, Tim! Thank you for showing us!

Look, I can hold infinity in a much easier way..... Just draw a line on paper and hold that paper stiffly in your hand. OP Explanation: A line is a collection of an infinite number of points. 👍👍👍

This guy is stereotypical disney grandpa who makes mechanical clock in his 3 story tree house.

It's so brilliant to see Tim still going

And it's because of this effect astronomers first falsely believed that you could, figure out the center of the universe, but then realized that you couldn't precisely because of the effect Tim just demonstrated. Since the universe, all points are expanding away from one another uniformly, if you pick any spot, and line up ANY dot, all the other dots will appear to be moving away from it, then if you pick another dot and line THAT dot up, all the points will appear to move away from THAT dot. and so on. Thus showing that there is no "center of the universe".

Tim is the Willy Wonka of the Toy world.

Hi Tim, I am 68 years old and I love your videos. I watch your videos because your videos made me think about old days.

I absolutely love your channel, I’ve been watching for years now and it never failed to bring me joy!

Re-invention forty years later! Cool! I was messing with this around 1982, while developing slot-aperture 3D printouts[1]. I even published (in the local Mensa newsletter, Rochester NY.) Also about ten years ago I saw it cropping up somewhere online. Besides the zoomed radial version, notice odd behavior when peeled up, creating a gap between sheets. And so we try sticking a plate of clear 1cm acrylic between, and that makes it move around whenever you shift your head, or walk past it. More: with extremely dense dots, the center becomes a white patch (where dots are overlapped, not adjacent.) A white blotch, which from a distance, moves up or down when you walk past. Then, put the zoomed sheet in front of the un-zoomed paper, w/plastic slab between. The light patch is now a real image, floating in front of the device. Stick your eye there, and the light patch grows to cover the entire plate. (It's a nonrepeating Moire' pattern, some amorphous "Moire' glass" rather than crystalline. ) Great minds THINK TWISTED. (And when forced, minds move 90deg from what one would expect?) . [1] I stumbled upon the idea that we can make real 3D postcards by using arrays of pinholes rather than arrays of lenses. Or more simply, arrays of narrow vertical slits, with a clear plate. In front we have a transparency of slits (use line-zipatone, photocopied onto transparency.) Then behind, make stereo-pair art from two collections of superposed vertical lines. Now align the sheets, and your left eye sees one pattern, right eye the other, just like 3D postcards do it via lenticular arrays. The image is pretty dark though. Use white paper, and backlight the hell out of it. (Heh, I didn't take it any further, or even publish, and then about three years later, someone else patented the same thing. Oh well.)

Could this be done with two transparent sheets, on an over head projector?

Simple and elegant! Thanks for sharing

I just find the British art of explaining the greatest and the most unfathomable mysteries, like showing a fish at a pond to a child, very amusing.

Another great video Tim. I understand it would be taxing to your health but a live tour of your toys, tricks and magic would be awesome

Do I need to learn how to transfer the energy from a horse through stirrups to achieve the power of infinity?

If there was ever a live action adaptation of the old D&D cartoon, this guy could easily portray dungeon master.resemblance is on point.

This is actually fascinating. Reminds me of the old 1960s music videos with the overlays of colors and shapes. They used a similar effect

I need a loop of this effect! It makes me feel so calm

beautiful!

It took me until the end if the video until I realized that I had the captions off, but I understood everything you said. I love your english.

We are all just living in a simulation controlled by Tim.

Moiré patterns are fascinating! This one is called Glass pattern. Other types of patterns can be seen on TV screens, fences with closely spaced bars, car grilles and even on banknotes to prevent counterfeiting

POV when you pay more attention to some guy talking about dots on a piece of paper than in all you classes combined.

I’m convinced that this man is a wizard, the most whimsical wizard you’ll ever meet specializes in illusory magic

THAT was really mesmerising. Thanx, Tim.

Absolutely wonderful!

Wow that is really neat and much cooler than I was expecting

This is so neat...

Tim feels like a very fun grandpa to chat with.

Simply beautiful !

Truly astonishing effect from very simple apparatus. Chaos evolves into order, random dots turn to recognisable patterns....Aeons later Atoms form to create life. The natural order of things.

Amazing! This episode could’ve been on Art Attack back in the day👍👍

Fantastic new intro lovely stuff, thank you Tim and all those behind the scenes 😀

Just took this idea to photoshop, you can create the duplicate layer with 2 clicks so its super easy to have a go on there. Within 5 minutes I had some really cool results, thanks for the tip!

It’s nice to see you still here on KZfaq and posting videos still

Depending on the displacement, our brains connect each pair of dots as little lines and imagine a vector direction for them so there is a sense of spiral or circles or radiating out/in.

That is fascinating! So glad I watched this.

Always wonderful to see the marvels Tim has for us,

Go back to the classic introduction. It was genuinely sweet.

I could see this very good for drawing especially for perspective learning.

This is as beautiful as it is mindblowing. Brings calm...

Rotating the acetate sheet creates an effect analogous to stellar rotation.

Everyone: you can't conquer infinity. Tim: casualy holds infinity in 1 hand

Now imagine seeing this with your own eyes looking at a clear night sky, and being unable to see it ever again

A very good demonstration how the expanding universe is illusory.