*Almost* Right Triangles?

[xenologer]

I'm trying to build angled wings on a spaceship, and while click-hinges are nice, I'd like to try to do it using technic beams and triangles to get the angle

Now, triangles present a special problem with Legos, since lego bricks come in Integral Stud lengths, with perhaps an allowance of 1/2 stud lengths if you use the offset beams, and maybe allowances of .4 stud lengths if you use stacks of plates between technic bricks.

While this does allow us some freedom, in reality with the exception of a few special triangles we won't be able to build a perfect geometric match for a specified triangle and angle.

I am OK with being close enough though, for example recently I discovered a 2, 4, 3.5 triangle that has less than .1% error in length for the hypotenuse - within the tolerance of lego brick manufacture.

So my question is, does anyone have an "Almost Right Triangle" spreadsheet or calculator? Discovering them by accident takes a while....

Im looking for an angle of around 20-30 degrees, and its a small ship so the triangle has to be less than 5 studs at maximum dimension....

[Mithrandir]

I'm trying to build angled wings on a spaceship, and while click-hinges are nice, I'd like to try to do it using technic beams and triangles to get the angle

Now, triangles present a special problem with Legos, since lego bricks come in Integral Stud lengths, with perhaps an allowance of 1/2 stud lengths if you use the offset beams, and maybe allowances of .4 stud lengths if you use stacks of plates between technic bricks.

While this does allow us some freedom, in reality with the exception of a few special triangles we won't be able to build a perfect geometric match for a specified triangle and angle.

I am OK with being close enough though, for example recently I discovered a 2, 4, 3.5 triangle that has less than .1% error in length for the hypotenuse - within the tolerance of lego brick manufacture.

So my question is, does anyone have an "Almost Right Triangle" spreadsheet or calculator? Discovering them by accident takes a while....

Im looking for an angle of around 20-30 degrees, and its a small ship so the triangle has to be less than 5 studs at maximum dimension....

I made a similar sheet for finding out how to mesh gears together; this should work for you too. If I remember, I'll grab it from my home computer and post it tomorrow morning.

[Kikuichimonji]

Not a spreadsheet or anything, but how about using 3 of these?

You would also need 3 of it's counterpart of course, but Peeron treats them as 2 pieces. You could also use the 1/3 version, of course.

[snefroe]

Not a spreadsheet or anything, but how about using 3 of these?

You would also need 3 of it's counterpart of course, but Peeron treats them as 2 pieces. You could also use the 1/3 version, of course.

yep, or just plates. all you'd need to do is place them in the shape of a "V", or if your ship isn't too big, as you indicated, you can always use the classic space 4x4 wings...

in my experience, lego bricks don't allow angled wings very much when you're building large ships, like the size of a grey baseplate, but for small ships, i'd say you have lots of options...