CSE325 Computer Science and Sculpture

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CSE325 Computer Science and Sculpture

• Prof. George Hart

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Orderly Tangles
One interesting transformation of a Platonic
solid is to form an orderly tangle by rotating
and translating the faces in a symmetric manner.
This can provide the foundation for visually
interesting sculptural forms.
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Derivation from Regular Polyhedron
Rotate faces
Slide in or out
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Regular Polylinks

• Symmetric linkages of regular polygons
• Alan Holden built models
• Cardboard or dowels
• Holden wrote
• Shapes, Spaces and Symmetry,1971
• Regular Polylinks, 1980
• Orderly Tangles, 1983
• Table of lengths

4 Triangles
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Generates Template to Print and Cut
4 Triangles
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Robert J. Lang
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Rinus Roelofs
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Carlo Sequin
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Regular Polylinks
4 Triangles
6 Squares
Left and right hand forms
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Paper or Wood Models
6 Squares
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Solid Freeform Fabrication
6 Squares
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Theo Geerinck
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Rinus Roelofs
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Rinus Roelofs
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Regular Polylinks
6 Pentagons - size scaled
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Square Cross Section
6 Pentagons
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Rinus Roelofs
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Paper or Wood Models
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Charles Perry, sculptor
1976, 12 tons, 20 edge
3 nested copies
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Regular Polylinks
12 Pentagons
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Rinus Roelofs
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Wooden Puzzles

• Taiwan
• Teacher Lin
• Sculptor Wu
• Square cross sections
• Simple lap joint
• No glue
• Trial and error to determine length

12 Pentagons
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Second Puzzle from Lin and Wu
10 Triangles
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Many Analogous Puzzles Possible

• Each regular polylink gives a puzzle
• Also can combine several together
• Different ones interweaved
• Same one nested
• Need critical dimensions to cut lengths
• No closed-form formulas for lengths
• Wrote program to
• Determine dimensions
• Output templates to print, cut, assemble
• Output STL files for solid freeform fabrication

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Carlo Sequin
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Carlo Sequin
Five rectangles one axis of 5-fold symmetry
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Software Demo

• Soon to be available on class website

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Combinations
4 Triangles 6 Squares
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Combinations
12 Pentagons 10 Triangles
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Models Difficult for Dowels
30 Squares around icosahedral 2-fold axes
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Other Polygon Forms
8 Triangles
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Spiraling Polygons
10 layers, each 6 Squares
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Charles Perry
Eclipse, 1973, 35 tall
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Things too Complex to Make
10 Spirals connect opposite faces of icosahedron
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Curved ComponentsCentral Inversion
4 Triangles
20 Triangles