Math Monday: Glass Bead Construction

Craft & Design Science
Math Monday: Glass Bead Construction

By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics

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A few weeks ago this column showed an assortment of small geometric structures made from beads by Horibe Kazunori. Well, anything which is cool at hold-in-your-hand size becomes extra cool when scaled up to gigantic size. This beautiful form is based on a dodecahedron with blobs coming out of each vertex. I don’t imagine this was easy to make, but if you want to try one, observe how the cycles with five or seven beads are in places with positive or negative curvature, respectively.

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See all of George Hart’s Math Monday columns

18 thoughts on “Math Monday: Glass Bead Construction

  1. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  2. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  3. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  4. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  5. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  6. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  7. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  8. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

  9. James B says:

    Looks like something rendered with Apophysis, and is very nice work.

    I would get busy building spheres that have an internal motor and magnets embedded in spherical eccentric gears that rotate against the shell to make one of these self-arranging, but the lawn needs mowed.

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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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