Maker + Mathematician = OMG I want one of those!
June 15, 2020 6:08 PM Subscribe
What happens when a maker (Adam Savage) and a Maths Promoter (Matt Parker) get together in Adam's shop and build a thing? Well it's a pretty awesome thing.
Lets skip to the 46 minute mark and watch them complete the build and turn it on and share in the glee...
Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Rhombic Dodecahedron with Matt Parker!
The Manual of Mathematical Magic
In this special One Day Build filmed earlier this year, mathematician Matt Parker visits the cave to build a rhombic dodecahedron with Adam! Be prepared for lots of fun geometry discussion as Adam and Matt try to make abstract math concepts tangible with a physical build. They also take this construction a few steps further by lining the inside of the polyhedron with mirrors and LED strips for an infinty [sic] mirrored effect!Bonus, from the links on the YouTube page is this PDF full of magic tricks based on Maths. Learn to wow your friends, or at least some kids.
The Manual of Mathematical Magic
In junior high school we had to make polyhedra using dowels and glue. I had to do an icosahedron which even though it has more sides wasn't that bad because it was all triangles. Having to do a regular dodecahedron would have been terrible but a rhombic dodecahedron looks a bit more manageable although you'd have to make sure your rhombuses don't get squished. I'm sure we had many days/weeks to work on it.
Nowadays I'm happy if I make things that are reasonably square so I'm quite impressed they were able to whip this up in less than an hour.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:21 PM on June 15, 2020
Nowadays I'm happy if I make things that are reasonably square so I'm quite impressed they were able to whip this up in less than an hour.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:21 PM on June 15, 2020
If you like that, check out Anthony James.
posted by endquote at 7:52 PM on June 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by endquote at 7:52 PM on June 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
The video has taught me that the tiling of rhombic dodecahedrons in 3-D space is just about at the limits of my brain to conceptualize. I feel like a very clever Flatlander who has a tenuous grasp of the theoretical concept of the cube.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:37 PM on June 15, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:37 PM on June 15, 2020 [3 favorites]
Neat, zengargoyle, thanks! It's that Matt Parker, comedian, & author of Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in The Real World (an Adam Savage Book Club Pick) (and Savage started a book club? also neat!).
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:39 PM on June 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:39 PM on June 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
This video contains four of my favorite things: Adam Savage, Matt Parker, rhombic dodecahedrons, and shiny glowy things.
posted by NMcCoy at 1:30 AM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by NMcCoy at 1:30 AM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
I watched this a few days ago and really enjoyed it. I especially liked the wide variety of skills that they had to use to plan and assemble this thing. I think it's worth watching the whole thing to see how the build is kind of 'meh' all the way through, until the moment of on-turning, when it's suddenly far more awesome than it looked like it was going to be.
Oh no, infinitely many of them are not working .....
And infinitely many of them are working, too. I feel like this is one of those infinite series kinds of things where the ratio of not working:working is a nice rational number, even though the numerator and denominator in that fraction are infinite. Like if you take any finite extent of this thing, you get the same ratio, so wouldn't that flat line on the graph just extend off to infinite extent?
posted by FishBike at 7:35 AM on June 16, 2020
Oh no, infinitely many of them are not working .....
And infinitely many of them are working, too. I feel like this is one of those infinite series kinds of things where the ratio of not working:working is a nice rational number, even though the numerator and denominator in that fraction are infinite. Like if you take any finite extent of this thing, you get the same ratio, so wouldn't that flat line on the graph just extend off to infinite extent?
posted by FishBike at 7:35 AM on June 16, 2020
This video contains four of my favorite things: Adam Savage, Matt Parker, rhombic dodecahedrons, and shiny glowy things.
True that. If it just also somehow had Oreos, ocelots, and Tilda Swinton, it would be perfect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:37 AM on June 16, 2020
True that. If it just also somehow had Oreos, ocelots, and Tilda Swinton, it would be perfect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:37 AM on June 16, 2020
I know it's not exactly the same, but "Oreos, ocelots, and Orlando [Tilda Swinton]" is more euphonious.
posted by moonmilk at 10:52 AM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by moonmilk at 10:52 AM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Ryvar at 6:30 PM on June 15, 2020 [3 favorites]