Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Gömböc What Is It?




The Gömböc Is truly a strange object and or a while it existed only in theory. The defining characteristic is its ability to self right, and this is achieved by its having only one stable equilibrium point and one unstable
equilibrium point (the stable equilibrium point is at it's one state of rest, while the unstable point is everywhere else) The object must be homogeneous, without any weights inside (like a punching clown). Its existence was actually doubted for a long time, the main reason being that there's no analog to it in two dimensions and the same was assumed for three dimensions. It was the belief that there was no Gömböc that started one of its discoverers down the road to finally creating one. The whole story can be found at X-plus Magazine in an informative history of the Gömböc written by Marianne Freiberger, also; here is a link to the Gömböc's website  where you can purchase one for yourself. I also found a video on Youtube of one in action but unfortunately for me its in German. geometry

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