So when I was doing the math for the styrofoam-dowel tetrahedron, I noticed that locating the holes necessary for making a regular octahedron should be easy too. Naturally, having done the theory, it’s hard to resist actually building the thing.
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Recently a friend of mine was giving a (math) talk and wanted as a prop “a large tetrahedron with the vertices emphasized.” This seemed like a natural for Studio Infinity, so the assignment was accepted.
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Welcome to Studio Infinity! You most likely reached this page via the link on the Gengzhi Goblets given away at G4G13. Here are pointers to more in-depth discussions of the Goblets.
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So far, we’ve created a lot of interesting small models of tensegrity structures. However, for doing public programs of the sort Storm King Art Center was planning, it’s always helpful to be able to build much larger models of things. Building giant models seems to get the ideas across more vividly, engage visitors more thoroughly, and be just plain fun.
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So why the interest in tensegrity here at Studio Infinity? It begins with Kenneth Snelson, the inventor of tensegrity (although perhaps not of the term) as a student of Buckminster Fuller. Ken went on to become a noted sculptor, using tensegrity in many of his works. One of those sculptures, Free Ride Home, resides at Storm King Art Center. And recently, the education department at Storm King Art Center invited me to give a workshop there about tensegrity, how to make simple models of tensegrity, and how to share ideas about tensegrity with the public visiting the Center.
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OK, so now we are going to try to force a tensegrity structure to take on the shape of a truly regular icosahedron. But we don’t have to search blindly for a way; we are armed with the results of this MathStream post about how to do it.
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Studio Infinity is kicking off with a group of articles that feature the concept of tensegrity. What does that mean?
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Here’s a closeup of some snub dodecahedra that students built as part of a group construction I led at The College of New Jersey in July of 2017. They are each approximately 80cm in diameter.
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Here are two large-scale group constructions I facilitated the construction of as part of a session at a 2017 MAA Spring Sectional meeting at Frostburg University. The first is the one I have dubbed the “Octahex Ring” — it’s a compound of a dozen octahedra:
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Here’s an installation I designed for the National Museum of Mathematics for the 2016 USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC. The only construction materials are dowels, off-the-shelf end caps, and zip ties. It’s not actually a fully elevated icosidodecahedron; only the pentagonal faces are elevated.
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