Wolfram Demonstrations Project
7709

The Banach-Tarski Paradox

This animation shows a constructive version of the Banach–Tarski paradox, discovered by Jan Mycielski and Stan Wagon. The three colors define congruent sets in the hyperbolic plane , and from the initial viewpoint the sets appear congruent to our Euclidean eyes. Thus the orange set is one third of . But as we fly over the plane to a new viewpoint, we come to a spot where the congruence of orange to the green and blue combined becomes evident. Thus the orange is now half of .

SNAPSHOTS

  • [Snapshot]
  • [Snapshot]
  • [Snapshot]

DETAILS

Snapshot 1: the orange set is a third of the hyperbolic plane
Snapshot 2: the viewpoint has switched and the green region has become blue; the orange set is now congruent to the green and blue combined, and so is one half of the hyperbolic plane

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