pic: IRI winner's trophy

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I wouldn't mind seeing a pic of the inside, and what all those screws attach to.

Same. Just using a bit of combinatorial geometry, my guess is that what you'll find is a webbing that is essentially the dual graph¹ of the of soccer ball. Since a soccer ball (or Buckyball mathematically speaking) is a polyhedron of pentagonal and hexagonal faces with vertices of degree 3, the resulting dual will be a polyhedron with only triangular faces, with vertices of degree 5 and 6. These vertices look to be the insertion points of the screws.

All that being said, the webbing might be constructed differently than the perfect dual graph to allow for easier assembly and construction. Alas, what is perfect and elegant in the mathematical world, rarely works in the real world.

1. In graph theory, a dual graph of a given graph G is a graph which has a vertex for each plane region of G, and an edge for each edge in G joining two neighboring regions. This theory can be extending into 3D polyhedra geometry.

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by Karthik

combinatorial geometry

essentially the dual graph¹

a polyhedron of pentagonal

hexagonal faces with vertices of degree 3

a polyhedron with only triangular faces

vertices of degree 5 and 6

Karthik, please sit with me at IRI and explain what all of this means. I assume it is Canadian for "soccer ball"?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Karthik, please sit with me at IRI and explain what all of this means. I assume it is Canadian for "soccer ball"?

Actually, I had one of my roommates translate it.

Spoiler for Translation:

I'm a nerd.

(Actually, I am wishing that the prof who was most familiar with graph theory wasn't off campus at the moment, I'm very curious too)

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Same. Just using a bit of combinatorial geometry, my guess is that what you'll find is a webbing that is essentially the dual graph¹ of the of soccer ball. Since a soccer ball (or Buckyball mathematically speaking) is a polyhedron of pentagonal and hexagonal faces with vertices of degree 3, the resulting dual will be a polyhedron with only triangular faces, with vertices of degree 5 and 6. These vertices look to be the insertion points of the screws.

All that being said, the webbing might be constructed differently than the perfect dual graph to allow for easier assembly and construction. Alas, what is perfect and elegant in the mathematical world, rarely works in the real world.

1. In graph theory, a dual graph of a given graph G is a graph which has a vertex for each plane region of G, and an edge for each edge in G joining two neighboring regions. This theory can be extending into 3D polyhedra geometry.

In layman's terms: Pretend the bolt heads are dots. Connect the dots. Some dots have 5 connections, some have 6. It makes a pretty cool shape made of triangles.

[Andy Baker]

After ignoring much of the silliness of what was posted above, we just took a picture of the ball without the blue glass pieces.

The inside structure is made from 2 polycarbonate hemispheres, each 1/16" thick.

Andy B.

(edit... on second thought, I could post something similar to Karthik's convoluted solution and said that we used some 7-axis CNC welding process to do this. But, I didn't. )

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

After ignoring much of the silliness of what was posted above, we just took a picture of the ball without the blue glass pieces.

The inside structure is made from 2 polycarbonate hemispheres, each 1/16" thick.

Andy B.

(edit... on second thought, I could post something similar to Karthik's convoluted solution and said that we used some 7-axis CNC welding process to do this. But, I didn't. )

Sorry for injecting some interesting math (well, at least interesting to me) in to the discussion. In the future I'll restrict my posts to drivel like "OMG. That's sooooo cool!"

Anyways, here's a picture I found on the web that illustrates what I was talking about with the dual. (Found on a combinatorial geometry course website at Merrimack College)



Clearly too complicated to fabricate, but still pretty cool. (Or just general ignorable silliness. )

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Sorry for injecting some interesting math (well, at least interesting to me) in to the discussion. In the future I'll restrict my posts to drivel like "OMG. That's sooooo cool!"

I thought it was great, Karthik. It's about time some of our younger members and some of our newer mentors had this opportunity to read some of your thoughts/thinking/posts.

And... I followed some of it so I know that people who understand/grasp math concepts much better than I do would appreciate it with a greater and deeper understanding.


Jane

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

I thought it was great, Karthik. It's about time some of our younger members and some of our newer mentors had this opportunity to read some of your thoughts/thinking/posts.

And... I followed some of it so I know that people who understand/grasp math concepts much better than I do would appreciate it with a greater and deeper understanding.


Jane

I can't agree more. That post was pretty awesome even though I got very confused. Thanks for the information Karthik.

[Cynette]

I just have to ask...are there any pieces that can fall off during the presentations?

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Cynette

I just have to ask...are there any pieces that can fall off during the presentations?

This year's trophies have a special feature: the bottoms stay on.

Seriously, these are inherently fragile, since they are made of glass. So, it is possible for them to break. We are packing these up today, and each one will have it's own box and packing material so teams can have a bit of help being careful with them.

The anodized base plates just came in, and they look outstanding. Also, the medallions look great. I will post pics on the AM facebook page soon.

Andy

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Clearly too complicated to fabricate, but still pretty cool. (Or just general ignorable silliness. )

Yes, this is clearly too complicated to fabricate. Or is it? Well, it's somewhat like Karthik's ball.

(see ya soon, Karthik - safe travels!)

Andy B.