Math Monday: Scroll Saw Fractals

Education Science
Math Monday: Scroll Saw Fractals

By the Museum of Mathematics

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With just a scroll saw, starting from a cube of wood, it is possible to make a family of complex, cube-based fractals.

fractals

Once you’ve mastered the above, try the next level up in this family:

fractals

Below is a face-on view, which shows the pattern that has to be cut three times to get the final object. You cut the same outline in the XY plane, the XZ plane, and the YZ plane.

fractals

Cory Poole showed me this technique, which I’d not seen before.

[Article written by George Hart]

4 thoughts on “Math Monday: Scroll Saw Fractals

  1. corypoole says:

    http://oceananinchdeep.blogspot.com/2011/01/3d-fractals-cut-on-scroll-saw.html

    This has a small blog post on making these and several other objects using this technique.

    They’re pretty fun to make.

  2. corypoole says:

    http://oceananinchdeep.blogspot.com/2011/01/3d-fractals-cut-on-scroll-saw.html

    This has a small blog post on making these and several other objects using this technique.

    They’re pretty fun to make.

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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