Saturday, January 17, 2015

Fibonacci zeotrope sculptures

Sorry for the sudden aggregation binge. I should be working on my genuflection to The College Board (AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 syllabi), but my motivation for that exercise is so. very. low.

In the meantime, let's enjoy this confluence of Fibonacci numbers, 3D printing, and stroboscopy, shall we?

This San Francisco Globe article introduces it nicely.

And, of course, video.

Fibonacci Zeotrope Sculptures


Fibonacci Zoetrope Sculptures from Pier 9 on Vimeo.

"These are 3-D printed sculptures designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. The placement of the appendages is determined by the same method nature uses in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotation speed is synchronized to the strobe so that one flash occurs every time the sculpture turns 137.5ยบ—the golden angle. If you count the number of spirals on any of these sculptures you will find that they are always Fibonacci numbers.

For this video, rather than using a strobe, the camera was set to a very short shutter speed (1/4000 sec) in order to freeze the spinning sculpture."

No comments: