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markdow — hex-cubes
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Published: 2008-12-13 08:58:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 1195; Favourites: 3; Downloads: 55
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Description
There's a nice bistable percept of these, with concave or convex corners.These 2x2x2 sets of cubes form a kind of universal cube -- any side can interlock with any side of a similar cube.
~Hop41 has demonstrated a similar set of universal cubes, Cube Panels . He would like to integrate other shapes, like his tetrahedral Delta Blocks , to extend the universe of constructable structures.
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Comments: 3
I have trouble seeing both perceptions.
The cubes are always convex and it's hard for me to see the concave hexes as concave and virtually impossible to see the convex as concave
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Mark,
This can be a nice concave, convex optical illusion as you note.
In my opinion it can also be a powerful toy. Legos have a male connector on top, a female on the bottom and the four vertical faces are neutral. I believe the connectivity and power of these toys would be much greater if every face had a hermaphroditic connector that could connect to every other connector.
It made me jump back when I saw this image. It is like the kids in the movie _Explorers_ who discover each of them have been having the same dreams.
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Yes, gender is a big consideration when mating cubes!
The hexagonal connectors were just a thought about being able to connect cubes at another (multiple of 30 degree) angle. And they fit in with with this super arrangement wich has a hexagonal tiling cross section.
One of my 2x2x2 blocks (one color set in this) has a hermaphroditic connector that has the same symmetry as your blocks [link] Your block is made of six identical (and chiral) faces, mine of eight identical (and chiral) cubes. It is cool that we came so close to the same thing, and a little strange that this symmetry block is not yet available. I had seen your (drawings of) blocks, long ago, and I'm sure I sub-conciously sublimated some of the root notion.
I do wish I had a few thousand of these to tinker with.
"... for geometry, you know, is the gate of science, and the gate is so low and small that one can only enter it as a little child." William Clifford [link]
"There is no scientific discoverer, no poet, no painter, no musician, who will not tell you that he found ready made his discovery or poem or picture - that it came to him from outside, and that he did not consciously create it from within." William Clifford (From a lecture to the Royal Institution titled "Some of the conditions of mental development")
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