Spherical harmonics

Okay kiddo, imagine that you have a big round ball, like a basketball. But instead of being smooth like a regular basketball, this ball is covered in bumps and divots of different shapes and sizes.

Now, let's say that we want to find out how much light is hitting each part of the ball. That's where spherical harmonics come in!

Spherical harmonics are a way of breaking down the surface of our bumpy basketball into different parts, kind of like when you take apart a puzzle. But instead of just cutting it into square or triangle pieces, we're going to break it down into special, curved shapes that fit together perfectly.

These curved shapes are called harmonics, and they help us understand how light or other things are distributed over the surface of our bumpy ball. Each harmonic looks a bit different and has a unique pattern of bumps and dips, and we use a special math formula to figure out how much light is hitting each one.

So, by using spherical harmonics, we can break down complex shapes like our bumpy basketball and understand how things are distributed over them. Pretty cool, right?