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'Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster' is my favorite episode of the RGB cartoon, for more reasons than I can explain. I had a question regarding a quote early on in the episode. Referencing the volume of ghosts they're busting, Ray makes the following remark about the containment unit:

"We have to put another Klein Bottle down there, or it's gonna crack wide open!"

Was that a throwaway line to sound technical? Or do Klein Bottles serve an actual function, that we know of, in the Unit? If it's the latter, I've always wondered about that.

In mathematics, the Klein Bottle is a surface where notions of left and right can't be consistently defined.

Thanks so much!

You're welcome.

So my theory is they add Klein Bottles to expand the containment universe within the unit. So I always figured when we saw a different landscape when they went in, that implied they added another bottle and altered the configuration so they could fit more ghosts in there to point of what it ended up looking like in Extreme Ghostbusters "Slimer's Sacrifice" vs. what it looked like in The Real Ghostbusters "X-Mas Marks the Spot" when it was first seen. So like adding more RAM to a computer, I guess?

I've never heard of the mathematical definition of the Klein bottle, so that was interesting.

My previous exposure to the term was sort of the three-dimensional equivalent of a Moebius strip.









It's a shape that curves back on and through itself, so it's one continuous surface. It has no second surface, and has zero edges. Or is it one edge? The hole through which it passes in itself could be an edge, I guess.

The first time I saw the name was in an odd place... a Star Wars novel. L. Neil Smith wrote a trilogy of Lando Calrissian novels in the 80s which had more than one odd reference to Earth-specific proper-noun terminology like that.

When I heard Ray use the term in that episode, these are what I pictured. I'm not sure how they would be 'attached' to the containment unit, mind you.

But they do look like they'd form neat little oubliettes where ghosts could get in but not get out.

Alex

P.S.

The bottle was first theoretically described in 1882 by Felix Klein, hence the name.



I found that on the same website where several of my above pics originated.

http://www.kleinbottle.com/

They do sell Klein bottles there, if anyone's interested, but I thought their pitch was pretty funny, especially the part about mouse traps.

"At last, Acme has conquered topological and engineering frontiers to manufacture genuine glass Klein Bottles. These are the finest closed, non-orientable, boundary-free manifolds sold anywhere in our three spatial dimensions.

These elegant bottles make splendid gifts, outstanding classroom displays, and inferior mouse-traps. With its circle of singularities, an Acme Klein Bottle can be said to exist inside of itself -- especially handy during time-reversals.

A mathematician's delight, handcrafted in glass"

Alex

One of just many examples of wonderful adult humour, something I wouldn't even realise was weird until twenty years or so after I first watched Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster.

They actually have Klein Bottles in the Ghostbusters World game. You can buy them to expand space in the containment unit. Thought that was a pretty cool reference.

mrmichaelt wrote: ↑December 18th, 2017, 5:10 pm You're welcome.

So my theory is they add Klein Bottles to expand the containment universe within the unit. So I always figured when we saw a different landscape when they went in, that implied they added another bottle and altered the configuration so they could fit more ghosts in there to point of what it ended up looking like in Extreme Ghostbusters "Slimer's Sacrifice" vs. what it looked like in The Real Ghostbusters "X-Mas Marks the Spot" when it was first seen. So like adding more RAM to a computer, I guess?

That was my assumption as well.

One of just many examples of wonderful adult humour, something I wouldn't even realise was weird until twenty years or so after I first watched Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster.

I remember rewatching "The Bogeyman Cometh" a few years ago and damn near dropped my jaw at the fact that Peter references the mountain and Mohammed.