A couple examples of manifolds:
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exhaust manifold on combustion engine takes raw cylinder exhaust gases in pipes that all come down and combine into a single larger pipe that connects to the input of a catalytic converter.
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the plenum in your attic is a manifold. One big duct runs from your air handler into a box with several ducts coming from it, delivering air to each of the vents. the ducts and the plenum form a manifold.
In literature, it means 'many and various'.
In mathematics, "a collection of points forming a certain kind of set, such as those of a topologically closed surface or an analog of this in three or more dimensions"
In Kantian philosophy, "the sum of the particulars furnished by sense before they have been unified by the synthesis of the understanding"
Origins: Old English manigfeald ; current noun senses date from the mid 19th century.
All from the wikipedia
They all have some descriptive relevance, but the one that really counts for us is the math one, suggesting the closed surface.
It wouldn't surprise me though if it still worked; there are many examples of topologically closed surfaces that can still be traversed, if in unexpected ways. I'm thinking of another manifold, the klein bottle, and of course the mobieus strip.
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Thank you for linking that! I knew I had read that they could be, but I couldn't recall where. It might not have been Scientific American, but that'll do XD
While clearly they can be, infinity == infinity is still true, If I recall.
Also, I've got some simple problems with that crate analogy, Scientific American or not; any crate with an infinite number of anything inside it cannot be emptied, it's in the very definition of infinite. Consequently, neither crate will ever empty and the pairing will be an infinite pairing of apples and oranges.