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정말 기발하고 멋진 큐브가 있네요~신기~신기~
언젠가 이런 형식의 홍보물을 본적은 있지만 조금 더 진화된 형태인듯
Watch as the cubes unfold and then, like magic, become two geometrical figures known as stellated rhombic dodecahedrons. Stranger than the name is that the dodecahedrons then fold again as two cubes the same size as the original cube. Wizardry? Miracle? Hellraiser? No, mathematics.
Keep reading for more about this black math and a bonus of biblical and quantum miracles.
“I never dreamed that a Christmas present my mom bought at the Museum of Modern Art would become such a big hit! Now, it’s popping up all over the Internet”, wrote Philip Brocoum, who in a few days has had more than 300,000 views to the video.
It’s a Yoshimoto cube, invented by Japanese Naoki Yoshimoto in 1971. Made up of eight interconnected cubes, it’s capable of unfolding itself in a cyclic fashion. That means you could keep folding, or unfolding it, indefinitely.
In the toy Brocoum’s mom bought him, the cubes were also cut into two identical polyhedra, each capable of forming a Yoshimoto cube containing a hollow space inside with the exact shape of another Yoshimoto cube “open” as as dodecahedron (several other shapes are also possible).
If that sounded somewhat complicated, the animated GIF on the right may illustrate the miracle of the multiplication of Yoshimoto cubes better. It’s simply that a solid Yoshimoto cube can unfold into two hollow Yoshimoto cubes.
They can be bought at the MoMa not so cheaply for $55, but you can also create one yourself using paper and glue. It will take a lot of work, and if you would rather spend just a couple of minutes, you can a have a simpler version of the folding cube using a sheet of paper, scissors and tape. It won’t multiplicate itself, but it will unfold, and it will be a Yoshimoto cube. Just follow the video below:
