Nice Egg on a Budget

Last week I invited all readers to submit their fun math stories and puzzles and already received two interesting pointers. One is from Jerome - one of our best puzzle solvers. Jerome lives in Alberta, Canada, where enemies are rare, politics is uneventful, weather is peaceful, and people can devote a lot of time to things that really matter, like food. They grow it, they make it, they eat it and apparently build monuments to the food they like.

Jerome sent me links to the Sausage Monument in Mundare:

 

Pyrogy (on a fork) Monument in Glendon:

 


 And a Ukranian Easter Egg Monument in Vegreville: 


The Easter Egg is called Pysanka and it commemorates the Ukranian heritage of the large part of Vegreville population. It measures 25.7 feet long and stands 31 feet high. Complicated geometry of the egg shape made the design of the Pysanka a highly complex project. Professor Ronald Resch, a computer scientist at the University of Utah, agreed to take on the design work.

So, how do you build a giant replica of a chicken egg accurately, decoratively, and inexpensively in 1980th?
According to one of the Resch's students, they chose not to use the usual method of splitting the egg surface into latitudinal and longitudinal lines as this would produce a very large number of un-indentical parts that would drive project costs up. Instead, they decided to approximate the egg surface with small equilateral triangular tiles made of aluminium. Professor Resch already worked on similar but much simpler curved surfaces for some dome architectural projects. He started with folding paper experiments and noted interesting symmetrical patterns that un-folded paper creates.  Over the period of a year together with his students Resch designed a special computer program that can figure out the numerous folds that can lead to the egg shape. You can see all the math details in this old paper by one of Resch's students, James Blinn, that became one of the star computer scientists. They then produced the egg on the University's flat-bed plotter machine, out of aluminium, replacing the plotter pen with the milling tool. Each side of the equilateral triangle was made to be 1 foot long. The triangles were anodized in three colors and bolted together.

The Pysanka ended up as an immense jigsaw puzzle containing 524 star patterns, 1,108 equilateral triangles, 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts, and 177 internal struts. This believed to be the first case of laying a computer generated egg.

15 comments:

  1. Very cool, thanks for sharing. BTW, the third image seems to be missing on the server.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In line Coach Outlet Online is bringing Michael Kors Outlet unique Coach Factory Outlet to a Toms Shoes USA shoe for Cheap Jerseys Spring/Michael Kors Outlet 2014 Coach Factory Outlet, and this Coach Outlet, it's a Coach Outlet. The Coach Outlet Sale Sandal Giuseppe Zanotti Outlet.Supermodel mom Coach Factory Outlet was Coach Factory Outlet Online being all kinds of hot this weekend Coach Outlet she Coach Store Online out in a Michael Kors Outlet-turning, Celine Outlet I did, I was Celine Bags possessed by Fitflops Flipflops suit madness.Fitflops USA-there string Michael Kors during Michael Kors Store vacation in Tomss Hoes Bahamas. Fitflop Footwear by her family, the 40-year-old looked happy and relaxed - Fitflops Outlet, uh, did we Fitflops Sandals super hot? - as she Giuseppe Zanotti by the pool.I've Giuseppe Zanotti Designer making my own vanilla extract for years. I love it! It's cost-effective, and in my opinion, Vanilla extract is also (easily) the most used extract in my Prada Outlet , sort of pretty (although it kind of looks like spiders too) tastes way better than imitation vanilla extract.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on blogs I stumble upon every day. It’s always helpful to read through articles from other authors and practice a little something from their websites.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great! Thanks for your post, it's very informative!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great post. This post is exactly what I need. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for sharing this post.It is very extraordinary post.
    <a href="http://examhelpline.in>Examhelpline</a>

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.