By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics Whittling is a traditional technique for making one-of-a-kind objects that doesn’t get enough attention nowadays. A time-old method of demonstrating one’s whittling technique is to carve linked objects from a single piece of wood. The above step-by-step guide shows four stages in making a pair of linked […]
Todd Harrison (Mesa, AZ) has a nice post on his blog about a recent ANSR (Arizona Near Space Research) balloon launch, the group’s 55th! Rich Osgood from Heatsynclabs.org and I were invited observers. Our objective was to help track the balloon and locate the landing zone while testing our own radio balloon tracking equipment. I’m […]
I love Caleb Charland‘s geeked-out photography. His work, in essence, consists of scientific experiments explored on film — magnets, electricity, fluid dynamics — all beautiful. My process and choice of subject matter stems from growing up in a do-it-yourself household where I learned to appreciate the power that tools and materials hold. As I explore […]
MAKE Contributing Editor (and author of Make: Electronics) Charles Platt just filed this little report from the commercial space conference he’s covering for us. — Gareth The Lynx suborbital spaceplane from XCOR I’m attending the Space Access ’10 conference in Phoenix, Arizona, with the intention of writing about some particularly exciting ventures for a future […]
Math Monday: Hexagonal stick arrangements By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics Interpenetrating hexagonal arrangements of sticks are a challenging mathematical exercise to assemble from pencils. Four different directions are used, as color-coded here. The above sculpture, 72 Pencils, has tiny dots of glue to hold itself together, but you can easily use eight […]
Math Monday: 3D Hilbert Curve from plumbing supplies By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics The 3D Hilbert curve is an infinitely long path which wiggles around through all regions of a cube, making right angles in a systematic manner. Physical models can be made with additive fabrication technology. The elegant metal version above […]
Craig Smith, of Firefly Workshop, has been planning a home observatory and is working out the details of easily building a domed roof for it. He writes: Anybody with a decent telescope knows that a telescope should be cool as the night air to prevent heat radiant distortion. Aside from keeping it out in an […]
