4 ms·
This reminds me of Buckminster Fuller's cloud 9 concept. His idea was that since volume scales so much more strongly than surface area for a sphere, if you mak
by lpmay 12y ago
This reminds me of Buckminster Fuller's cloud 9 concept. His idea was that since volume scales so much more strongly than surface area for a sphere, if you make a larger and larger sphere you will enclose cubed more air for only squared more structure. Build a large enough sphere and heat the enclosed air a couple degrees above ambient and the entire structure would be buoyant, like a soap bubble with human breath in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_sphere%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_sphere...
- ianbicking 12y ago"Geodesic spheres (structures of triangular components arranged to make a sphere) become stronger as they become bigger, due to how they distribute stress over their surfaces." I happened upon some Bucky Fuller stuff recently, and wondered just how large geodesic spheres have been made... and it's not particularly large. Which makes me wonder: is this really the whole story? What is the flaw in geodesic spheres that keeps them from being the basis of huge enclosed structures?
- Synaesthesia 12y agoThe difficulties of construction for one, and such large structures are vulnerable to buckling I would imagine.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]