Office Supplies Make Math Sculptures If You Know What You’re Doing

Ever been fiddling around at your desk in the office, wondering if some grander structure might come from an assemblage of paper clips, pens, and binder clips? You’re not alone. Let your mind contemplate these beautiful maths sculptures from [Zachary Abel].

[Zachary] has a knack for both three-dimensional forms and the artistic use of color. His Möbius Clips sculpture ably takes 110 humble pieces of office equipment in multiple colors, and laces them into a continuous strip that has beguiled humanity for generations. The simple paper clip becomes a dodecahedron, a colorful spiralling ball, or a tightly-stitched box. He does great things with playing cards too.

What elevates his work is that there’s a mathematical structure to it. It’s so much more than a pile of stationary, there’s always a geometry, a pattern which your mind latches on to when you see it. He also often shares the mathematical background behind his work, too.

If you’re fumbling about with the contents of your desk drawer while another Zoom meeting drags on, you might want to challenge yourself to draw from [Zachary’s] example. If you pull off something fantastical, do let us know!

 

 

Movie Night At The Lake Cabin

[Andrew’s] family has a rustic lake cabin. There is a lot to do during the day, but since there’s no electricity your options are limited when the sun goes down. Sure there’s the traditional campfire, but lately they’ve been spicing things up with an outdoor movie viewing.

To get this up and running they needed to build a projection screen. He’s going for a 2.35:1 aspect ration, but the technique will work for any aspect if you do your own math. They had a couple of extruded aluminum channels from an old chalk board which work perfectly as the top and bottom rails of the frame. With the width set at fourteen feet he just needed to mount the cross pieces on uprights at 5.95 feet apart. This provides a 183″ viewing surface.

White bed sheets serve as the screen material. After it’s stretched into place they line the rails with binder clips to hold it in place. The projector is powered from two 12V batteries via an 800W inverter. During the day the batteries get topped off by a solar panel system.