HexaStar II (two different versions)

Posted on 29 July 2016 by RobertLovesPi

hexastar ii

hexastar iib

An Illusion of Spin

Posted on 3 July 2016 by RobertLovesPi

I used three things to make this: Geometer’s Sketchpad (to make one black and white version; the whole thing is made of semicircles), MS-Paint (to color the six different versions which appear here), and the website http://www.makeagif.com (to assemble the six separate still images into one .gif file, with the illusion of motion). The surprising thing to me was how fast the process was, once I had the idea of my goal for a finished product.

Fractiles’ Mandala, Based on Angles of Pi/7 Radians

Posted on 14 June 2016 by RobertLovesPi

$fractiles7withblackbackground$

Although this was based on something I constructed using the Fractiles-7 magnetic tiling toy, I did not have enough magnetic pieces to finish this. The idea was, therefore, converted into a (non-Euclidean) construction using Geometer’s Sketchpad, and then refined using MS-Paint. The reason I describe this as a non-Euclidean construction is that an angle of pi/7 radians, such as the acute angles in the red rhombi, cannot be constructed using compass and unmarked straight edge: antiquity’s Euclidean tools. The other angles used are whole-number multiples of pi/7 radians, up to and including 6pi/7 radians for the obtuse angles of the red rhombi.

The yellow rhombi have angles measuring 2pi/7 and 5pi/7 radians, while the blue rhombi’s angles measures 3pi/7 and 4pi/7 radians. None of these angles have degree measures which are whole numbers. It is no coincidence that 7 is not found among the numerous factors of 360. It is, in fact, the smallest whole number for which this is true.

I have a conjecture that this aperiodic radial tiling-pattern could be continued, using these same three rhombi, indefinitely, but this has not yet been tested beyond the point shown.

On “Thinking Outside the Box” (Thanks, Mom)

Posted on 30 April 2016 by RobertLovesPi

outside the box

The secret to “thinking outside the box” is to never have your thinking put in a box in the first place. Thanks, Mom. This would not have happened to me without you making it happen, and I only just now figured this out.

Four Sets of Five Circles On Each of the Faces of a Dodecahedron

Posted on 25 April 2016 by RobertLovesPi

Dodecahedron

After using Geometer’s Sketchpad and MS-Paint to make the image on the faces (seen alone in the last post), I then used Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator to project these images onto a red dodecahedron, and create this .gif. Stella is available, including as a free trial download, at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.