Dick Esterle

This film introduces the AMAZING GEOMETRY MACHINE invented by Dick Esterle to a broader audience. The AMG extends the idea of "tensegrity" first developed by the artist Ken Snelson and popularized by Buckminster Fuller. The discontinuous compression rods are replaced by tubes and cables by 3 colored continuous loops run through each tube once. They form the edges of 2 intersecting complementary tetrahedrons. The final animation shows an animated idealized model showing only the tetrahedrons in oscillation ending in the cubic stellated octahedron. This animation can be viewed at http://www.youarespace.com It is interesting to note that upon meeting Ken Snelson at his studio he suggested I bring this model to the early Albany Math Art conference. That year I met a young Reza Sarhangi who planned to start his conference in Kansas.

This film seeks to illustrate the paper written by John Conway and Dick Esterle about the TETRABALL PUZZLE invented by Dick Esterle and augmented with John Conway. A link to the paper is here. http://rmm.ludus-opuscula.org/PDF_Files/ConwayEsterle_Tetraball_5_10(4_2015)_low.pdf

This film show the structures and patterns of ICOSA puzzle invented by Dick Esterle, The 4 colors of the 12 balls (6x2) relate to the 4 coloring problem of a dodecahedron. John Conway remarked that he had not thought of the 2 intervals between the 2 more well known patterns, SSS and LLL designated in the film. He gave the designation as SSL and LLS, so the patterns move from SSS, SSL, SLL, to LLL. Other patterns to note are the 6 pairings of 4 colors and their relation to the golden mean “post card” that live in the icosahedron.