I wonder if one could capitalise on the fractal structure of the model in its assembly.
I'm thinking of a cascade process in reverse, a hierarchy in fact.
A pair of children build a C(1)60.
60 such pairs in a school contribute their models to a C(2)60, assembled by a group of senior students under the eye of a member of the maths/science staff. With much ceremony (photographs for the school website, an article in the local paper) they add a label with the school's name.
From a date to be fixed, a Cn60 project van goes round the country picking up the units and transporting them to the place where the complete model is to be assembled.
Paul Stephenson,
The Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus
As I have commented below I think this is a nice idea but not really for this incarnation of the project. My reasons are
- Time scale of the project and transport. We have an absolute deadline for this project (if we go to Glastonbury) and collaborative construction strikes me as a very hard to control one.
- How many do you think would be built in a day? My guess is that it's hard to judge.
- How perfect do you think kids would be in their production line? Hard to gauge. I do have designs for a production line mechanism that would increase reliability but I'm hesitant to make the project reliant on public construction. (Tell me if you think I'm being too negative. I think I'm just concerned)
- The problem of super glue, as mentioned in my comment and in Health and Safety
- Once built the components of C-3-60 are large. In its final form it is composed of 60 1.2 meter spheres! Yes, about 50 cubic meters! Although relatively light. My plan is to transport to Glastonbury as 12 hemispheres as they pack together with considerably greater efficiency. But going into schools would increase transport quite a lot.
I think that it would be REALLY nice to do this in school, it would be a great way to talk about production lines in industry and to discuss pipelining in computers, but I think it would be a project to build a C-2-60 for a school to have as a sculpture/mobile for their school.
Hence the project would be build pentagons, take 6 pentagons and make a hemisphere, take hemispheres and make C60, make pentagons of C60s, make hemispheres of C-2-60 and them build the final thing.
I think that would be good (but, sadly, not for this project. Tell me if you think I'm wrong.
Bryson
Bryson Gore (unauthenticated)
Sep 14, 2009 9:01 AM
A nice idea, very much in the spirit of the project.
One problem though - at the moment BY FAR the best glue for ping-pong balls is Duper glue. And I'm quite worried about letting kids lose with the stuff!
I've tried all the standard art shop glues and their all far too slow in setting - at last 5 mins to go off and, on the whole, not very strong. I think the problem is that celluloid is not porous. So, solvent glues have nothing to soak into.
Super glue, applied as a single drop to two touching balls sets in 5 seconds and is such a good bond that, after a minute or two, if yyou try to pull the balls apart about 1 in 10 fail by tearing the material of the ball.
Because of the issues with safety in this project I have created a page to discuss these issues. (Comments can't take links in this wiki, for security reasons so...) Go to the Home page and you should see a link to 'Health and Safety'.
Bryson Gore (unauthenticated)
Sep 14, 2009 9:01 AM
For Duper, read Super! Sorry