[HN Gopher] Superhyperbola
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       Superhyperbola
        
       Author : jihadjihad
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2025-03-28 18:25 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.johndcook.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.johndcook.com)
        
       | TheRealPomax wrote:
       | Also known as a "squircle",
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squircle, which is a way better
       | name.
        
         | russellbeattie wrote:
         | Oh, I disagree entirely! This name makes you think of alternate
         | dimensions and other cool stuff.
         | 
         | Sadly, maxisuperhyperbola and ultramaxisuperhyperbola don't
         | seem to be things.
        
           | mitthrowaway2 wrote:
           | Since a hypercube is a higher-dimensional cube, I think a
           | higher-dimensional hyperbola would be a "hyperhyperbola".
        
             | itishappy wrote:
             | hyperboloid, my day is ruined
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperboloid
        
         | jihadjihad wrote:
         | The author of TFA has a couple neat posts about squircles that
         | might be of interest, too:
         | 
         | 0: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/02/13/squircle-
         | curvature...
         | 
         | 1: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/04/02/history-of-the-
         | ter...
        
         | alex-robbins wrote:
         | A superellipse is only a squircle if _a_ and _b_ are 1. As with
         | squares and rectangles, all squircles are superellipses but not
         | all superellipses are squircles.
        
         | hnuser123456 wrote:
         | I think the novelty of the article was in the 2nd image, and
         | why it's so much less well known. But my theory is there are
         | not as many applications for symmetrical curvy lines that
         | diverge than symmetrical curvy lines that converge.
        
           | nlawalker wrote:
           | Yeah that bit was funny to me. "I'm not sure why closed
           | shapes are so ubiquitous and pairs of diverging lines
           | aren't."
        
       | BrenBarn wrote:
       | > The name is also off-putting: juxtaposing super and hyper
       | sounds silly. The etymology makes sense, even if it sounds funny.
       | Piet Hein used the prefix super- to refer to increasing the
       | exponent from the usual value of 2. Its unfortunate that
       | hyperbola begins with a root that is similar to super.
       | 
       | How about just "superbola"? :-)
        
       | munchler wrote:
       | > It's not clear why the superellipse would be common and the
       | superhyperbola obscure
       | 
       | I think the explanation is pretty obvious: The hyperbola itself
       | is way more obscure than the ellipse to begin with, so it's not
       | surprising that hyperbola variations are also obscure.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Super-hyper-bola: the unstoppable bola. It's ARCH nemesis?
       | Mathman.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_One_Television#"Mathman...
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQYdOIKzgOwDk-QXhRVDz...
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-28 23:00 UTC)