Archimedes and 3D printing
3D printing seems to have some sort of turning point in the last few months. Lots of people know what it is and many are experimenting with it. This week I began teaching on my History of Mathematics module; yesterday’s lecture was about Archimedes. I would never imagined that the two could be combined but today I saw a preprint on the arXive on the combination of Archimedes and 3D printing. The paper has a brief history of Archimedes and his works (and quite a few elementary typos) and focusses on how to make models of his inventions, for example his water screw, and more mathematical objects using a 3D printer.
I don’t have access to 3D printing but would be intrigued to give some of the Archimedes models a go. Certainly, it would be great to have a supply of Platonic and Archimedian solids to show students. Has anyone out there tried something similar?
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We have put Mathematica code which produces 3D printable STL
Archimedean solids
on this page. The STL files are also there can can be downloaded to print for your class.
Dear Oliver,
Sorry for the delay – the notification that there was a message awaiting approval didn’t come through!
Anyhow, many thanks for the information, I’ll try to use the code in the near future.
Kevin
We have a 3-D printer at the new Museum of Math in New York City. It has been used to print various knots, George Hart’s Mathematically Correct breakfast (a bagel cut into two linked halves) and some polyhedra which have been customised at the Mathenaeum exhibit. If you’re in NYC come and take a look!
Dear Janet,
Thanks for telling me about this. If I’m in New York I certainly will visit.
Kevin