Thirty identical stainless steel parts interlock to
make this 7-inch diameter sculpture. I find it to be a a very
elegant
design, because
the parts are so simple. The snake template is shown below.
The key to the structure is in the way groups of three mouths join
at
right angles and lock everything
together. The notches on the back of the necks meet in pairs and
prevent any slippage. The thirty parts hold each other
together
rigidly, but until the last one is snapped in, it can all fall
apart.
Above and below are views along a five-fold
axis. If you look carefully, you can see it as a compound of five
tetrahedra. Six snakes, joined mouth to mouth to mouth, form
the
edges of each tetrahedron.
Snakes was unveiled at the Bridges London
Conference in 2006. It is on display at the London
Knowledge Lab in the collection of the Institute for Education
(School of Maths, Science, and Technology) at University College London.
Copyright 2006, George W.
Hart
