Sevenfold and Ninefold Möbius Kaleidocycles
Michael Grunwald, Johannes Schönke, and Eliot Fried

Proceedings of Bridges 2018: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Education, Culture
Pages 567–574
Workshop Papers

Abstract

In this workshop we will build paper models for a completely new class of kaleidocycles. Kaleidocycles are internally mobile ring mechanisms consisting of tetrahedra which are linked through revolute hinges. Instead of the classical, very popular kaleidocycles with even numbers of elements (usually six, sometimes eight), we will build kaleidocycles with seven or nine elements and several different surface designs. Moreover, we will learn that it is possible to construct kaleidocycles with any number of elements greater than or equal to six. These new kaleidocycles share two important properties: They have only a single degree of freedom and the topology of a threefold Möbius band. From the latter property, they can be called Möbius Kaleidocycles.

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