|
Changing the position of the solid below gives different views of its shape. Three of these views generate letters of the alphabet and, with them, it's possible to make a word in english. Rotate the solid (click and drag) and try to find this word! The alphabet below shows the shapes of each letter that can appear in the solid. Be careful: the letters H and I have the same shape. The same occurs with the letters N and Z and with the letters M and W. The letters must be given in the correct order!
|
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
|
BACH, ESCHER AND GÖDEL |
This kind of solid was idealized by Douglas R. Hofstadter to illustrate the cover of his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
|
EXPANDING THE IDEA: THE DIGITAL SUNDIAL | |||
Are there objects whose projections include more than 3 letters? The answer is yes!
In fact, there is a theorem from the fractal theory that guarantees the following:
if you choose a collection of plane pictures (not necessarily letters),
there is an object whose projections include the pictures you've specified (except
for a set of measure zero).
|
THE CORK PLUG |
The object below has three holes in the form of a square, a circle and a triangle. The circle's diameter and the square's side have the same length. The triangle is isosceles and its base and height have lengths equal to the length of the square's side. Is it possible to build a three dimensional solid that can stopper tape these three holes? Click here to see an answer! |
ALPHABOT |
Designed by Nikita Pashenkov from The Media Lab at MIT, the alphabot is a virtual robot that can take the shape of any letter of our alphabet. It was built to participate in a typography competition in the Tokyo Type Director's Club in November 2000. Click here or on one of the pictures below to access a JAVA version of alphabot. |
|
Responsible:
Humberto José Bortolossi.
Idealization and Programming: Rogério Vaz de Almeida Jr. and Humberto José Bortolossi. Revision: Carlos Eduardo Castańo Ferreira, Igor Bromonschenkel Brandăo, Anne Michelle Dysman Gomes and Luis Antonio Brasil Kowada. Graphical library: JavaView – Interactive 3D Geometry and Visualization. The Trip-Lets VRML files were generated using a program written by Christ van Willigen. Pictures: Wikipedia and Digital Sundial. |