Epicycles, complex Fourier series and Homer Simpson’s orbit

Today’s video was motivated by an amazing animation of a picture of Homer Simpson being drawn using epicycles. This video is about making sense of the mathematics epicycles. Highlights include the surprising shape of the Moon’s orbit around the Sun, instructions on how you can make your own epicycle drawings, and a crash course of complex Fourier series to make sense of it all. The original Homer epicycle video “Ptolemy and Homer” by Ramiro Serra and Cristián Carman posted on their friend’s Santiago Ginnob