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Mathematical Lego Sculptures
Posted by
michael
on Tue Jul 02, 2002 09:35 PM
from the too-much-time-on-your-hands dept.
from the too-much-time-on-your-hands dept.
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)."
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Can he make... (Score:1)
I could NEVER figure that out.
Does this mean... (Score:1)
Holy crap! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Holy crap! (Score:5, Funny)
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
}
Figure Eight Knot (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow.... (Score:5, Funny)
Now show me a hypercube and I'll be really impressed.
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:4, Interesting)
Other lego sculpture sites (Score:5, Informative)
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.
tell me... (Score:1)
klein bottles can't really be represented in three dimensions...
I love it (Score:4, Funny)
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
My Mozilla crashes on the link! (Score:1)
Everytime i click on the "out of legos" link, my
Mozilla(1.0) crashes!
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)
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...
Re:Lego Pieces (Score:4, Informative)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
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.
Wait a second... (Score:1)
Not to be picky... (Score:3, Informative)
It's LEGO!!!! (Score:1, Informative)
I think it's the "sheeps" syndrome
-psyconaut
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]
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.
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!
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)
I'll be impressed... (Score:1)
Looks like Slashdot has eaten my link (Score:1)
http://www.lipsons.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.h
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: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.