topology

How-To: Glass Klein Bottle

How-To: Glass Klein Bottle

Dutch glass crasftman Ramon Vink runs a studio called Poelgeest Glass. Using modern lampworking techniques and tools, he makes scientific apparatus and artistic pieces like this Klein bottle, the forming of which he has documented in a series of five YouTube videos. The videos themselves are pretty raw, with minimal post-production and no narration, but taken altogether they do a good job of documenting not just the general process of forming a Klein bottle from stock glass tube, but the specific tools and skilled manipulations required for each operation.

CNC Milling a Mobius strip

CNC Milling a Mobius strip

This video shows the manufacture of one of three 2011 MobiPrize awards, designed by a firm called rvtr. The MobiPrize “recognizes enterprises that demonstrate innovative and replicable solutions to local and global transportation challenges.” The award itself features a prominent Mobius strip motif, which is machined out of a piece of recycled aluminum on a 5-axis mill.

Topology Tuesday:  Klein’s Quartic

Topology Tuesday: Klein’s Quartic

If you are looking for a subject likely to inflame the hearts of mathematicians, make them slightly weak in the knees, and induce some distinctly poetical sentiments, Kleinโ€™s Quartic, first described by German mathematician Felix Klein in 1878, seems like a pretty good bet. Though the surface itself, per Wikipedia, “does not have a (non-trivial) 3-dimensional linear representation,” several prominent math-bloggers have produced models, projections, and plain-language written explanations attempting – and doing a pretty good job of it, IMHO – to communicate their passion for the construct…