Laura Taalman, Stephen Lucas, and Abigail Eget

Tritangentless knots have a curious and beautiful property: when realized as physical 3D printed models, they roll. Some tritangentless parameterizations roll more easily and freely than others, depending on the vertical and horizontal movement of their centers of mass. We have optimized a family of tritangentless trefoils to obtain the best rolling knots in terms of vertical center of mass variation. In this interactive work, people are invited to roll 3D printed models of these optimized rolling knots along a board and physically experience their horizontal center of mass variations as the models "rock and roll" down an inclined board.