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Posted (edited)

Another kinetic sculpture for your enjoyment!

Not much subtlety here - 50 Samsonite gears, 2 hailfire wheels, 60 #3 connectors, lots of 5x7 frames and 15L liftarms, 1 M-motor...

Edited by aeh5040
Posted (edited)

Very nice, I saw a similar one with the yellow samsonite gears. I started buying them off eBay to build it and I have only 28 so far. How many more do I need?

Well, I'd use a math formula attributed to Euler, and it relates the numbers of Vertices/Edges/Faces in any given polyhedron. The formula says:

Vertices - Edges + Faces = 2

In the video, it's a bit tricky to count how many gears, but you'd notice it's one per Vertex and one per Edge. The sculpture has 12 Faces and 20 Vertices. This means (by above formula) there are 30 edges. The number of gears is thus V+E=20+30=50 ... With my 28, I'm barely over half there. Time to go back to eBay and get a decent sized lot.

Edit: After all that math, I just noticed you posted the number of gears UNDER the video ... :(

Edited by DrJB
Posted

Yup, your calculations look spot on to me! The yellow version was mine as well. That was much easier because it doesn't need internal support.

The yellow gears are not too hard to get hold of, but finding 50 red ones was a challenge!

With just 8 of either type you can make an octahedron...

Posted

Neat, but the octahedron requires 4 connection (edges) at each vertex. That might require a different buliding technique than what you've used and thus, parts such as 10288.jpg?1 won't be of any use then ...

Posted

I like it, it looks very calming and I would be nice to stare at this, with some nice music in the back,... I'd fall asleep like a baby :classic:

You can always paint black/white spirals on the gears and let them 'hypnotize' you .... :)

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