Mathematical Lego Sculptures 185
Daedalus_ writes "Some guy has created mathematical surfaces (mobius strips, klein bottles, etc) out of Legos. He also has some other interesting creations (such as Dilbert figurines and a Hoberman Sphere)."
Can he make... (Score:1)
I could NEVER figure that out.
Re:Can he make... (Score:2)
Does this mean... (Score:1)
Re:Does this mean... (Score:1)
Holy crap! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Holy crap! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Holy crap! (Score:1)
What the *#JF$%!@#$ is 'enctryption'?
Re:Holy crap! (Score:1)
And the conjugate... (Score:3, Interesting)
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"
#include "metals.inc"
camera {
location
look_at
}
plane { , -1
pigment {
checker color Red, color Blue
}
}
light_source { color White}
#declare lego=union {
box {
}
#declare cyl1=cylinder {
,
}
object { cyl1 }
object { cyl1 translate }
object { cyl1 translate }
object { cyl1 translate }
object { cyl1 translate }
object { cyl1 translate }
texture { Glossy
pigment { Red }
}
}
object { lego }
object { lego
translate
rotate 20*y
}
Re:And the conjugate... (Score:4, Interesting)
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"
#include "metals.inc"
camera {
location < 0, 8, -8 >
look_at < 0, 1, 2 >
}
plane { <0, 1, 0>, -1
pigment {
checker color Red, color Blue
}
}
light_source { <2, 4, -3> color White}
#declare lego=union {
box {
<6, 0, 0>,
<0, 2, 4>
}
#declare cyl1=cylinder {
<1, 0, 1>,
<1, 2.5, 1>
}
object { cyl1 }
object { cyl1 translate < 2, 0, 0> }
object { cyl1 translate < 4, 0, 0> }
object { cyl1 translate < 0, 0, 2> }
object { cyl1 translate < 2, 0, 2> }
object { cyl1 translate < 4, 0, 2> }
texture { Glossy
pigment { Red }
}
}
object { lego }
object { lego
translate < -6, 0, 5 >
rotate 20*y
}
Re:And the conjugate... (Score:1)
Re:And the conjugate... (Score:2)
(dont have POVray installed right now, can someone tell me what this looks like?)
Re:And the conjugate... (Score:1)
A pair of red lego blocks on a sadisticly-tinted red/blue checkerboard plane. I'd post the image, but anywhere I COULD post it would die a horrible death. Render it yourself [povray.org].
Re:And the conjugate... (Score:2, Funny)
Quoth the parent: in case anyone is wondering, this is POVRay code... i think.
ObviousMan apparently has an alias: Vectra "duh" Fourteen.
Figure Eight Knot (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow.... (Score:5, Funny)
Now show me a hypercube and I'll be really impressed.
Re:Wow.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Even if we did this the BEST way to view a hypercube would be either to go to the 4th dimension to look at one, or have a creature from the 4th dimension come here and make a 3d representation of on.
Don't think this is happening anytime soon.
Medevo
Re:Wow.... (Score:1)
Re:Wow.... (Score:2, Funny)
Hypercube (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hypercube (Score:2, Funny)
Medevo
This one is better (Score:2)
Tim
Re:Wow.... (Score:2)
Geeze... (Score:2)
Another way to see a hypercube (Score:2)
That's a hypercube.
A 4D being would see the difference instantly. The 3D cube would seem kind of "flat" next to the other one.
Re:Another way to see a hypercube (Score:2)
Very true, but he's still pretty much right. Anyone capable of seeing an entire object 'at once' (however much that phrase means on this subject) on all 3 spatial and the temporal axis would see an ordinary cube as a tesseract (hypercube is the general term for n-d cube where n>3).
Check it out. I can read all this, but it helps me not one bit in visualizing it. The thing that blows my mind is the sheer quantity of math available for 4-d figures. Want the hyper-surface area of a Glome (4-d hypersphere) or the 'content' (hyper-volume) of a pentatope (4-d equilateral triangle)? Wild stuff...
Re:Wow.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wow.... (Score:5, Informative)
I disagree. That nicely describes what happens with a sphere, but not so much with a cube.
I guess it depends on how it's passing through 3-space. The best way to imagine this stuff is to imagine a 3-D object passing through 2-space. If you pass the cube through corner first, you'll get something like what you describe, except the cross sections will be triangular most of the time. Edge on, you'll get rectangles.
Face-on, your 2-space will see nothing until the 3-cube hits it, then the 2-space will see a square just sitting there until the 3-cube is all the way through.
What's the difference between a tesseract and a 4-cube? According to Eric Weisstein, it seems they're the same thing [wolfram.com].
Re:Wow.... (Score:2)
Re:Wow.... (Score:2)
What a 4d Cube looks like to us (Score:1)
Imagine a 2 dimensional person seeing a 3 dimensional cube pass through his space. If the flat surface of the 3d cube is parallel with the 2d universe, the 2d person will simply see a square miraculously appear before him, hover for awhile, and then disappear. If the surface of the 3d cube is not completely uniform the 2d person might see the surface of the square "morph" a little. Similarly, if a 4d cube passed through our 3d universe, we would see a cube miraculously appear and then, after a few moments, disappear.
Things become interesting if you pass the corner of the 3d cube through the 2d universe first. The 2d person would see tiny triangle appear before him that grows larger and larger, until you hit the next corners and things become complex, especially if the cube entered at an angle. Eventually you'll get back to a floating triangle that shrinks down to nothingness. Similarly, a 4d cube going through our universe will appear as a 3 sided growing pyramid at first.
Another way to imagine a 4d cube is to think about what its shadow would look like in our universe. The way to do that is to take a 3d cube and project its shadow on a wall. Straight on from the light source it looks like a square. Move it around and see how it morphs. Now image a 4d person was projecting the shadow of a 4d cube onto our universe. Straight on we would have a 3d cube. If he moved the cube around, various corners of the 4th dimension would "morph" out of the flat sides.
When we talk about seeing a hypercube we usually talk about the shadow of a transparent cube, where you just see the connecting lines. This would give you a cube inside of a cube with the corners of the inner cube connected to the corners of the outer cube.
Re:Wow.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wow.... (Score:1)
Re:Wow.... (Score:2)
Other lego sculpture sites (Score:5, Informative)
Natalie Portman! (Score:1)
On his web page he even titles the sculpture.
Queen Amidala
"My apologies to Ms. Portman"
Now this page is more like it (no lego though)
http://www.natalie-portman.net/pictures.
--
"This isn't a Troll"
Of course a troll would say that
Microserfs (Score:1)
What would be impressive is.... (Score:2)
And you could have a little Scotty Lego charachter next to a crashed shuttle craft on the surface.
Re:What would be impressive is.... (Score:1)
What do you mean "little"? I want to see a full size Lego Dyson Sphere.
Gotta think big.
Re:What would be impressive is.... (Score:1)
otherwise, it's cool
Re:What would be impressive is.... (Score:2)
Re:What would be impressive is.... (Score:2)
I can only speak a little bit of perl, My native tongue is C
I tried this once (Score:1)
As it turns out, I could never get the damn fusion reaction going. Stupid Zippo.
tell me... (Score:1)
klein bottles can't really be represented in three dimensions...
Re:tell me... (Score:2)
It's like saying you cant represent a cube in R^2, or any other 3d shape we commonly see represented on our computer monitors and tv screens, which are 2d last time I looked
Re:tell me... (Score:2)
klein bottles can't really be represented in three dimensions...
Um, (claps one hand against belly or other skin-coated surface) you must have overlooked these.
http://www.kleinbottle.com/ [kleinbottle.com]
Although I cannot figure how as it is the first hit when I GOOGLE a [ Klein Bottle ] search. There is even a Klein Coffee cup! Now stop being silly and order one for goodness sake.
I love it (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I love it (Score:2, Funny)
I obviously need a small lego machine to pull the plug out of the wall every time it locks up... hmmm
Re:I love it (Score:2)
Oh yeah? (Score:3, Funny)
Mirror Site (Score:3, Informative)
Mirror site up.
www.netmar.com/~will/lego [netmar.com]
Disclaimers:
1.) Not my work, I don't claim any of it.
2.) I didn't get the
3.) I know it's not slashdotted yet, just preparing/ karma whoring.
4.) If it does get slashdotted, and everyone starts testing my load balancing, why not sign up for hosting at the same time? We're running a no setup fee promotion at the moment.
~Will
P.S. became friends with the
Re:Mirror Site (Score:2)
It grabs files i don't need if i do a site-suck.
Whatever, my method worked OK, and now I have them saved on my home computer under my random pictures saved for posterity directory.
~Will
Re:Mirror Site (Score:1)
Re:Mirror Site (Score:1)
We offer shared solaris hosting, but all you get is to be on a faster machine and you get front page extentions. Linux is more economical.
~will
My Mozilla crashes on the link! (Score:1)
Everytime i click on the "out of legos" link, my
Mozilla(1.0) crashes!
Re: (Score:1)
Two heads are better.......than one (Score:4, Funny)
I would like to see this guy get together with the creater of this site:
http://drew.corrupt.net/lp/series2.html
The Kline Bottle would then never be looked at in the same light.
(Warning: not for minors)
Re:Two heads are better.......than one (Score:2)
RESTRICTED SITE
Re:Two heads are better.......than one (Score:2)
RESTRICTED SITE *)
The same thing is in a report that will go to your boss. (Pause for "gulp".)
Anyhow, as for what is actually there, lets just say that the author's lego kit has parts in it that are probably *not* standard. (Although such anatomy could probably be done with standard Lego bricks; the square edges just would look a little uncomfortable from the partner's perspective.)
Klein's bottle (Score:1)
I would like to have one, made of glass. Will look gorgeous, especially if made of colored glass.
Re:Klein's bottle (Score:4, Informative)
I believe Clifford Stoll [berkeley.edu] (of Cuckoo's Egg [amazon.com] fame) makes them out of glass. See www.kleinbottle.com [kleinbottle.com].
Lego Pieces (Score:2)
Maybe he cheats and makes his own lego blocks...
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Lego Mandelbrot Set, Anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
Look at 'em: they teach you to design, build, modify, and to have the patience for all of that. Legos are the best thing for the price that I can think of that can spur a young intellect. (Erector Sets were great for that too.) And if you get older and still play with them
BTW, I am down on all this Lego model crap I see in the stores. Give kids a bucket of basic blocks and let them create
* Legos {tm} is the registered trademark of some silly corporation or something like that.
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Lego Mandelbrot Set, Anyone? (Score:1)
It's OK to change words--in all or some forms--when you import them into your language, to make them blend in better. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and it's done all the time. Wouldn't it be simpler if Lego behaved like most other nouns? So why complicate matters?
Re:Lego Mandelbrot Set, Anyone? (Score:2)
Wait a second... (Score:1)
Not to be picky... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not to be picky... (Score:1)
Re:Not to be picky... (Score:1)
|-->--|
^' '' '^
|--<--|
Just line up the arrows and connect. For more information, check out mathworld.com.
It's LEGO!!!! (Score:1, Informative)
I think it's the "sheeps" syndrome
-psyconaut
Re:It's LEGO!!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
umm (Score:2)
Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that this post obeys the laws of thermodynamics!
Legos (Score:2)
But, for those interested, here are some other cool Lego sites:
Stegosaurus [henrylim.org]
Lego Town [compuserve.com]
Lego City [sparre.dk]
Beethoven [henrylim.org]
Queen Amidala [henrylim.org]
Audrey Hepburn Wall [henrylim.org]
Big Clock [ericharshbarger.org]
Alice in Wonderland [ericharshbarger.org]
Hey, baby! (Score:2)
Yeah, there's a reason why my dining table is on the front lawn.
I built a sphere (Score:1)
I had no computer, not even a graphical calculator, so I had to calculate separately for each dot the distance to the center using and ordinary calculator and the pytogoras formula. The radius was 10 "units". Unfortunately, the unit brick in lego is not a cube. I think to ratio of base to height of these pieces is 5:6. So the sphere now looks more like an ellipsoid. Maybe I should photograph it and put it on the web.
+1, Coolest nerdy article in a while! (Score:2)
But... (Score:1)
Cheat, Raytrace it! (Score:1)
For inspiration, check http://ben.com/LEGO/ [ben.com] out
It's LEGO, not LEGOS!!!! (Score:1)
It always has been, it always will be, you can confirm this on their web site.
It's like Sheep and Sheep - ok, NEVER call them "LEGOS" it grates people (whiners) like myself intensely.
Re:It's LEGO, not LEGOS!!!! (Score:1)
Now don't have a hissy fit I like teasing whiners...
Re:It's LEGO, not LEGOS!!!! (Score:1)
Then I'm sure (Score:2)
Bah, amateur! :) (Score:2)
You can see it here [mtv.com], along with some info of how it was done.
Good site to buy legos... (Score:1)
For people new to building and need a resources to buy their goodies, here [pitsco-legodacta.com] is a pretty good site. They have just about everything you would need (all different kinds of gears, axles, motor boxes, etc.). Everything you wish the main Lego site sold.
Ideal surfaces (Score:1)
This site has nice rotatable images:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/MinimalSurface s.html [wolfram.com]
Nice job indeed!
Re:Ideal surfaces (Score:1)
Turn yourself off machine (Score:1)
FLT, not just any theorem.
Gabriel's Trumpet (Score:1)
1st and 2nd mixed partial differential equations (Score:2)
Looks like Slashdot has eaten my link (Score:1)
http://www.lipsons.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.h
Re:Looks like Slashdot has eaten my link (Score:1)
Re:Looks like Slashdot has eaten my link (Score:1)
Re:Looks like Slashdot has eaten my link (Score:1)
actually (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, he mentions building something to amuse his 5 year old son,
so I imagine that he IS married...
He must have a very patient wife : )
Re:actually (Score:1)
Re:The Plural of Lego is, um, Lego (Score:2)
You mean I have to take "fishies" and "sheeps" off of my resume?
That could explain the lack of responses.
The usual bitch and whine (was Re:The Plural of…) (Score:1)
As for the usual argument as to the correct LEGO® terminology check out what LEGO® [lego.com] has to say about it (about 13 parragraphs down 'Proper Use of the LEGO Trademark')
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies
Not "fishi"? (re: the plural of Lego....) (Score:2)