CubeBiology

At World Maker Faire NY 2018, on 9/22 and 9/23, I hope to have a booth where kids can play with growing structures. Look for my project "CubeBiology: Grow a Cube from a Tiny Blob."

CubeBiology: Grow a Cube from a Tiny Blob

The growth sequence kids will be making at Maker Faire is animated in the 3D tensegrity simulation below. The steorograms are direct-view. Try to make the two images fuse to a single 3D image in the middle.  If you are nearsighted like me, taking off your glasses will likely help.

Animated stereogram of the 3-hosohedron-to-cube growth sequence.

The growth sequence notation I plan to use with the kids is:

siding insertion on left = n
siding insertion on right = u
switch = s
advance additional track lengths = integer

(The choice of 'n' and 'u' becomes mnemonic if you lean your head to the right as you read the character sequence.)

The execution of each letter is followed by an advance of one track length from the locomotive's current position. The integers count only additional advances.

We are going to treat the initial tiny blob (technically, a 3-hosohedron) as a prexisting primordial object, so the first letter in the growth sequence just tells us which direction the locomotive should point. For example, if the first letter is 'u', the locomotive should advance in the direction that puts the siding on the right or starboard side.

For example, the sequence I work in the pitch video would be written as:

un1s