Bat Country as of July, 2008
. . .
Copyright 2008 Gwen Fisher and Paul Brown.
(All images reprinted with permission. )
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"I thought some of you might be interested
to see a mathematical art project I am in the process of building.
I am working on a 21' high, Generation 3 Sierpinski
tetrahedron made from 384 baseball bats, 130 baseballs, and about 2000
lbs of steal.
We call it Bat Country.
So far, we have constructed a Generation 2
Sierpinski tetrahedron with 96 bats, shown here with me standing on it.
"
g. l. f.
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.
. .and as of August, 2008, a Generation 3 tetrahedon
Gwen is at the top.
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. . . and in the
desert.
More
photos from Bat Country.
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For
all viewers . . . .
The tetrahedron is one
of five Platonic solids studied at the Academy in
Athens.
In the 18th century, Euler added his well-known formula V + F - E = 2 (Vertices + Faces - Edges = 2 ). However, it has been chemistry, biology and
computer graphics that have brought the study of tetrahedral forms to
major prominence in the past century. Hybrid
artists/mathematicians such as Escher joined the pursuit.
In mathematics, the topic falls under the general name of "abstract
space." As early as
1915, Sierpinski described a
"gasket"
or a "triangle" with repeated and proportionally reduced areas.
Today
these shapes are widely known as "fractals." Sierpinski's
triangles have emerged to be among the most recognizable shapes or
patterns
in all computer graphics.
Other projects in the
NCB . . .
"Quilts"
based on Cayley
table patterns is another project introduced by Dr. Fisher.
Fisher,
Gwen L., The
Quaternions
Quilts,
FOCUS, The Newsletter of the Mathematical Association of
America,
vol. 25 (4), January, 2005, p. 4.
Diana
Venters and
Elaine K. Ellison are both mathematicians and avid quilters.
Diana Venters and Elaine Krajenke Ellison,
Mathematical Quilts, Key Curriculum Press, 1999.
(ISBN 1-55953-317-X)
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