C[omp]ute

From: Shae Matijs Erisson <shae@...>

Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 18:30:38 +0100

"andrew cooke" <andrew@...> writes:

> ooo nice links!  i'm not convinced a rhombic dodecahedron is space filling
> - i think i need to start building some paper models.  

There's an equation that someone came up with in the 1940s that gives the
space-filling solids in any number of dimensions.
There are thirteen space-filling solids in three dimensions.
Penrose tiles are also space-filling in three dimensions.
I wonder how far tiling extends. Can I make a three dimensional analog of a
Ying-Yang? Do Penrose tiles become more complicated in higher dimensions?
Is there a higher dimensional, more irregular tiling past the designs of
Penrose? Penrose tiles seem connected to quasi-tiling in superconductors.
Maybe it's for the same reason that braided wire works better than solid wire?
Too bad I don't have a few spare decades to play with these ideas.

> i like the computer idea too - sounds feasible, though i guess you end up
> with lower bus speeds?  maybe you should write to apple ;o)

Why lower bus speeds? I'd rather come up with a way that people can build their
own computers at home by reading a PDF and the nearest machine shop.
I've been thinking about photorefractive crystals...

> (my computer has been dead for the last few weeks.  i'm now back in
> santiago and managed to "fix" it by pressing the power switch, which i had
> been told "didn't work" - i would fire the local admin, but unfortunately
> i don't actually pay her and she does own half the house...)

Oops!
-- 
Shae Matijs Erisson - http://www.ScannedInAvian.com/ - Sockmonster once said:
You could switch out the unicycles for badgers, and the game would be the same.