Serendipitous Beauty

The applet below displays an absolutely serendipitous find of the surface I do not know how to describe. I made a mistake programming the Möbius strip applet and got that beauty below.

This "flower" can be rotated by dragging the mouse. With the ALT key pressed, the surface will zoom in or out.

This applet requires Sun's Java VM 2 which your browser may perceive as a popup. Which it is not. If you want to see the applet work, visit Sun's website at https://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp, download and install Java VM and enjoy the applet.

What if applet does not run?

The surface has a curious property. When it is rotating freely (just by being pushed by the cursor), it is easy to perceive the rotation changing directions. Set the image to "Solid" and color to "Transparent" and focus on one of the cones. A funny visual illusion.

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