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, Klein’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…