From: The Butterfly (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 03/25/99
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 04:51:31 -0800 Message-Id: <199903251251.EAA24574@bootstrap.sculptors.com> From: The Butterfly <salsbury_at_sculptors.com> Subject: Re: geometry
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 23:16:12 +0000
From: Charles J Knight <c.knight_at_juno.com>
>: [Bucky] also drew up plans for tetrahedral city-structures which
>
>A tetrahedron has the highest surface/volume ratio *of Platonic
>solids*, but why restrict the design to Platonic solids?
>A flat slab has an even higher ratio. Indeed why need it be
>convex? Why not a starfish shape, with multiple semi-enclosed
>harbors?
Well...that's what Bucky designed, and his rationale for it. You are,
of course, correct about it being the best choice of the platonic solids,
but he chose it for another reason too.
The tetrahedron has a "sloping" side, which if terraced, provided a
degree of safety. This was a structure the height of a skyscraper,
so "falling out" was a concern for him. Stepped terraces would only
allow one to fall out and down one story...comparatively minor.
Hey...made sense to me.
-- Chuck Knight
If I recall correctly, these things might have been as big as
2000' on an edge, making the thing considerably taller than
the tallest skyscraper. More like a floating mountain! The
falling-out issue is a good one, and something that big would
be relatively impervious to tidal waves, too.
I'm currently thinking about something more low-lying, like
the graphics of The Millenial Project, but am open to
suggestions to other designs.
--
Pat
___________________Think For Yourself____________________
Patrick G. Salsbury - http://reality.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
Check out the Reality Sculptors Project: http://reality.sculptors.com/
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Move away from stupidity.