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I thought this was a joke, but he actually did do this first. Impressive!


I'm not sure whether or not he did this first, but it's very similar to an extremely impressive, but old and well-known illustration of the power of Fourier analysis in which you construct a "Fourier epicycle" (think: machine made of circular gears of different ratios) that can sketch any image. 3blue1brown has a great video on Fourier Epicycles but you can also get the idea here https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/171755/how-c...


Also of potential interest is Kempe's Universailty Theroem which states you can draw any (polynomial) shape with a set of mechanical linkages. Like one that will sign your name.

https://academic.oup.com/plms/article/s1-7/1/213/1570315?log...

http://www.koutschan.de/data/link/


damn, I got nerdsniped again


Or check out drawing Homer Simpson with the same technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVuU2YCwHjw




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