February 13th, 2007 + del.icio.us +digg
Hungarian scientists have discovered a new type of shape, which they have dubbed the Gomboc:
“Two Hungarians puzzled by how certain creatures with shells, like turtles and beetles, are able to self-right have developed a shape with one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium to explain the phenomenon.” [smh]
And what’s more, it’s mono-monostatic!
I don’t know what it means to have one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium, But I think we can expect to see this shape go the way of the Moebius Strip, Klien Bottle and Eternity Puzzles as justification for Self-Toppleable-Equilibrically-Unstable Cultural Centres in the near future.
February 16th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Stable equilibrium is where an object’s centre of gravity would initially be raised if it was pushed over (imagine a triangle sitting on one of its sides). An object in this state is difficult to push over because of the need to lift the object’s CoG.
Unstable equilibrium is where the object’s CoG would immediately be lowered if it was pushed over (imagine a triangle balanced on one of its points). An object in this state is easy to push over because it only needs to be unbalanced and gravity will do the rest.
A shape that has only one point of each type of equilibrium is very special (unlike a triangle) because it will always return to its proper orientation - unless it is perfectly balanced upside down, when the slightest breath of wind would right it in any case.
Those blow-up things with the weight in the bottom don’t count because they do not have a uniform density.
February 16th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Ok that makes sense.
Thanks for that!
February 16th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I’m not Hungarian but I think (from a quick google) that Gumboc is Hungarian for Dumpling- not half as cool sounding.
February 25th, 2007 at 7:08 am
“Gomboc” is indeed dumpling in Hungarian. However, the name of the object is “Gömböc” (see Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomboc) Here it says that “Gömböc”
in Hungarian is a folklore figure, rather fat. “Gömb” means sphere, and “Gömböc” refers to a sphere-like object. The mathematical “Gömböc” described in the wikipedia page appears to have some connection to the sphere. (for more detail see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gomboc)