Gömböc, A Remarkable Shape That Automatically Rights Itself With Only Two Equilibrium Points

James of The Action Lab (previously) explained and demonstrated the Gömböc, a particular homogenous shape that relies on only two equilibrium points to automatically right itself. The design is so ingenious that three varieties of turtles have evolved their shells to a Gömböc shape.

… some turtles have evolved the ability to flip themselves over using nothing but gravity and

basically, what they’ve evolved is a turtle shell that looks like this. So if they get flipped over no matter how they land they can always right themselves …Now there are only about three species of turtles that have evolved this way but it’s amazing that they’ve evolved this exact same shape that mathematicians had to prove existed.

James also shared a pattern for 3D printing a Gömböc.

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The post Gömböc, A Remarkable Shape That Automatically Rights Itself With Only Two Equilibrium Points first appeared on Laughing Squid.

This article was first featured at https://laughingsquid.com/gomboc/ on June 17, 2020 at 03:36PM by Lori Dorn