Geometric Systems for Building 3-D Structures
Geometric systems for building 3-D structures from a plurality of 2-D building elements, including a first building element defining a first shape defined by edges with a first dimension, and a second building element defining a second shape incongruent to the first shape defined by edges with a second dimension incongruent to the first dimension. Further, each building element defines an imaginary circle having a center aligned with the center of the building element, and defines a plurality of notches positioned at and tangential to the circumference of the imaginary circle, where the plurality of building elements are configured to fit together at their respective notches to torn a 3-D structure. Geometric systems may include a first building element defining a first shape with a first contour, and a second building element defining a second shape incongruent to the first shape with a second contour incongruent to the first contour.
The present disclosure relates generally to geometric systems. In particular, geometric systems with interfitting building elements for building structures are described.
The construction of 3-D structures from 2-D building elements is an effective means for studying various geometric shapes, including, but not limited to, Platonic, Archimedean, and Johnson solids as well as prisms, antiprisms, and various non-convex structures with regular faces. This area of study also lends itself well to the understanding of mathematical concepts associated with these geometric shapes and may aid in the development of the user's creative appetite. Indeed, geometric building systems are an excellent means for constructing an infinite number of geometric shapes while exposing users to an activity that intersects the world of art with the world of mathematics to make wonderful and colorful creations.
Known geometric systems are not entirely satisfactory for the range of applications in which they are employed. For example, existing geometric systems do not allow for the interfitting or interconnection of individual incongruent elements to construct a 3-D structure. In addition, conventional geometric systems, because of their failure to allow the interconnection of incongruent elements, are limited to a very small subset of 3-D structures that can actually be constructed.
Thus, there exists a need for geometric systems that improve upon and advance the design of known geometric systems. Examples of new and useful geometric systems for building 3-D structures relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.
Disclosure addressing one or more of the identified existing needs is provided in the detailed description below. Examples of references relevant to geometric systems for building 3-D structures include U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,469,898; 5,593,337; 5,489,230; and U.S. Patent Application Publication: 20120164912. However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: the individual building elements used to construct the 3-D structures can only be interconnected with other building elements that are exactly the same shape and the material from which these building elements are manufactured is limited to either only flexible materials or only rigid materials, but never a combination of both types of material. The complete disclosures of the above patents and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.
SUMMARYThe present disclosure is directed to geometric systems for building 3-D structures from a plurality of 2-D building elements, including a first building element defining a first shape defined by edges with a first dimension, and a second building element defining a second shape incongruent to the first shape defined by edges with a second dimension incongruent to the first dimension. Further, each building element defines an imaginary circle haying a center aligned with the center of the building element and defines a plurality of notches positioned at the circumference of the imaginary circle and aligned tangentially to the imaginary circle and where the plurality of building elements, including the first banding element and the second building element incongruent shapes, are configured to fit together at their respective notches to form a 3-D structure. In some examples, geometric systems include a first building element defining a first shape defined by edges with a first contour, and a second building element defining a second shape incongruent to the first shape defined by edges with a second contour incongruent to the first contour.
The disclosed geometric systems will become better understood through review of the following detailed description in conjunction with the figures. The detailed description and figures provide merely examples of the various inventions described herein. Those skilled in the art will understand that the disclosed examples may be varied, modified, and altered without departing from the scope of the inventions described herein. Many variations are contemplated for different applications and design considerations; however, for the sake of brevity, each and every contemplated variation is not individually described in the following detailed description.
Throughout the following detailed description, examples of various geometric systems are provided. Related features in the examples may be identical, similar, or dissimilar in different examples. For the sake of brevity, related features will not be redundantly explained in each example. Instead, the use of related feature names will cue the reader that the feature with a related feature name may be similar to the related feature in an example explained previously. Features specific to a given example will be described in that particular example. The reader should understand that a given feature need not be the same or similar to the specific portrayal of a related feature in any given figure or example.
With reference to
In use, as shown in
For example, the geometric systems described herein may form Platonic solids, Archimedean solids, and Johnson solids by interconnecting building elements together. Alternatively, a user may interconnect building elements to each other to form a variety of 3-D polyhedrons or other 3-D structures. Of course, substantially planar structures may be created with geometric systems described herein as well, which might be considered two-dimensional given the relative dimensions of the resulting structure.
In many examples, the building elements are made from a lightweight, inexpensive material, such as paper, which leads to 3-D structures that are aesthetically pleasing, but not structurally sound. However, in some examples, the building elements are made from structurally significant materials, such as wood, hard plastic, metal, or other rigid material, and may be used to construct 3-D structures with structural integrity. For instance, geometric systems including structural building elements may form enhanced 3-D structures such as lamps, toys, or even more permanent structures as part of an arts and crafts kit.
The plurality of building elements may be the same share and/or configuration, as shown in
Turning attention to
Building element 20 defines an imaginary circle haying a center aligned with the center of building element 20. In the example shown in
Building element 20 defines three notches 26. In certain examples, the building element includes less than three notches, such as one or two notches. In still further examples, the building element includes more than three notches, such as four, five, or six or more notches.
Notches 26 are substantially rectilinear in shape as compared to notches 126 shown in
In the example shown in
Building element 20 may be manufactured from such materials as foam, ethylene vinyl acetate, poster board, or laminated paper. Additionally or alternatively, the building elements of the present invention may be manufactured from wood veneer, acrylic, or sisal. The reader should understand that the building elements described herein may be manufactured from virtually any material currently known or yet to be discovered that would allow the building elements to interconnect and form 3-D structures.
Continuing with
As shown in
The reader can see in
Interconnecting incongruent building elements, such as building element 20 and building element 30, may facilitated by forming notches 26 and 36 to be of equal length. Further, placing notches 26 and 36 proximate the circumference of the imaginary circles centered on the building elements helps enable a user to construct 3-D structures having regular faces, i.e., faces that are equiangular and equilateral. Having a plurality of building elements, each with notches oriented proximate the circumference of an imaginary circle centered on the building element, enable a user to interconnect an large number of building elements, whether the building elements are congruent or incongruent to one another, such as shown in see
Turning attention to
As can be seen in
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As shown in
Shifting to
Building element 820 also includes a plurality of semicircular tabs 825 that are integrally formed with edges 824 and positioned with a semicircular portion 827 of tab 825 extending away from edge 824. A flat edge 828 of tab 825 cooperates with edge 824 to form a rectilinear notch 826. Alternatively, the flat edge of the semicircular tab and edge may cooperate to form a non-rectilinear notch.
The disclosure above encompasses multiple distinct inventions with independent utility. While each of these inventions has been disclosed in a particular form, the specific embodiments disclosed and illustrated above are not to be considered in a limiting sense as numerous variations are possible. The subject matter of the inventions includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and subcombinations of the various elements, features, functions and/or properties disclosed above and inherent to those skilled in the art pertaining to such inventions. Where the disclosure or subsequently filed claims recite “a” element, “a first” element, or any such equivalent term, the disclosure or claims should be understood to incorporate one or more such elements, neither requiring nor excluding two or more such elements.
Applicant(s) reserves the right to submit claims directed to combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed inventions that are believed to be novel and non-obvious. Inventions embodied inn other combinations and subcombinations of features, functions, elements and/or properties may be claimed through amendment of those claims or presentation of new claims in the present application or in a related application. Such amended or new claims, whether they are directed to the same invention or a different invention and whether they are different, broader, narrower or equal in scope to the original claims, are to be considered within the subject matter of the inventions described herein.
Claims
1. A geometric system for building 3-D structures., comprising:
- a plurality of 2-D building elements configured to connect together for building 3-D structures, including: a first building element defining a first shape defined edges with a first dimension, and a second building element defining a second shape incongruent to the first shape defined by edges with a second dimension incongruent to the first dimension; and
- where each building element: defines an imaginary circle having a center aligned with the center of the building element, and defines a plurality of notches disposed at the circumference of the imaginary circle and aligned tangentially to the imaginary circle; and
- where the plurality of building elements, including the first building element and the second building element defining incongruent shapes, are configured to fit together at their respective notches to form a 3-D structure.
2. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of notches are rectilinear for the first building element and non-rectilinear for the second building element.
3. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of notches are arbitrarily rectilinear and non-rectilinear in shape for all of the interconnected 2-D building elements.
4. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the notches of each building element to be interconnected are of equal length.
5. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the distance from the notches to the center of the building elements is selected to cause the plurality of building elements to form a 3-D structure having faces that are equiangular and equilateral hen interconnected.
6. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the location of the notches in relation to the center of each building element is selected to cause the plurality of building elements to form a 3-D Platonic structure, a 3-D Johnson structure, or a 3-D Archimedean structure when interconnected.
7. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the 2-D building elements are made from ethylene vinyl acetate, poster board, or laminated paper.
8. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the 2-D building elements are made from wood veneer, acrylic, or sisal.
9. The geometric system of claim 1, wherein the edges of the 2-D building elements are curvilinear.
10. A geometric system for building 3-D structures from a plurality of 2-D building elements, comprising:
- a plurality of 2-D building elements configured to connect together for building 3-D structures, including: a first building element defining a first shape defined by edges with a first contour, and a second building element defining a second shape incongruent to the first shape defined by edges with a second contour incongruent to the first contour; and
- where each building element: defines an imaginary circle having a center aligned with the center of the building element, and defines a Plurality of notches disposed at the circumference of the imaginary circle and aligned tangentially to the imaginary circle; and
- where the plurality of building elements, including the first building element and the second building element defining incongruent shapes, are configured to fit together at their respective notches to form a polyhedron structure.
11. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of notches are rectilinear for the first building element and non-rectilinear for the second building element.
12. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein each 2-D building element is configured with at least three notches.
13. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of notches are non-rectilinear, allowing the interconnection of 2-D building elements that are made of various materials.
14. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the notches of each 2-D building element to be interconnected are of equal length.
15. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein incongruent 2-D building elements are configured to have notches of the same length and to interconnect to form a 3-D Platonic polyhedron, a 3-D Johnson polyhedron, or a 3-D Archimedean polyhedron.
16. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the distance from the notches to the center of the building elements is selected to cause the plurality of building elements to form a 3-D structure having faces that are equiangular and equilateral when interconnected.
17. The geometric system of claim 10, further comprising a plurality of edge tabs, the edge tabs being integrally formed with the edges of the 2-D building elements to form the notches.
18. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the contours of the 2-D building elements are curvilinear.
19. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the 2-D building elements are made from ethylene vinyl acetate, poster board, or laminated paper.
20. The geometric system of claim 10, wherein the 2-D building elements are made from wood veneer, acrylic, or sisal.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 4, 2013
Publication Date: Aug 7, 2014
Inventors: Mircea Draghicescu (Portland, OR), Ioana Browne (Palo Alto, CA)
Application Number: 13/758,926
International Classification: A63H 33/08 (20060101);