You might be surprised to learn that you can’t comb the hairs flat on a coconut without creating a cowlick. Perhaps even more surprising, this silly claim with an even sillier name, the “hairy ball ...

Here's what the hairiest problem in math can teach us about wind, antennas and nuclear fusion. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Many prominent phenomena originate from geometrical effects rather than from local physics. For example, the 'hairy ball' (HB) theorem asserts that a hairy sphere cannot be combed without introducing ...