- The
Kinetic Sculpture
Project
This project aims to create kinetic
sculptures that illustrate some scientific or
mathematical principle. Optimally, each
sculpture will be artistically viable without
the technical meaning and simply becomes
more interesting as its meaning is
appreciated.
The first effort is directed to illustrating
chaotic motion and aspects of chaos theory. The sculpture devices
would not exhibit esthetically interesting motion for many choices
of relative size, weight, and other design parameters. If I had to
build many variations of the device in order to determine a good
design, it would be costly in materials and time. To avoid this
expense, I developed a numerical simulation of the device. After
experimenting with the design parameters of the device until a
satisfactory set has been found, that specific device will be
constructed and will be the physical embodiment of the sculpture.
The animation of the numerical simulation (that I call the
Chaotron) is interesting to view without building the physical
device. In fact, I can demonstrate some aspects of the motion
better using the numerical simulation.
A view of the sculpture simulator screen. Click on the image to see
a larger size. Read about the computer science issues here.
The leftmost panel allows the user to start and stop the simulation
and shows information about how it is progressing. The center
panel shows a three-dimensional view of the sculpture. In this
case, it is composed of two wheels; one attached to a fixed
freely-rotating axle, and the second attached to a freely-rotating
axle on the rim of the first wheel. The wheels are heavier on one
side than the other, so when they are pulled from their resting
position and released, gravity sets them in motion. One of the
primary physics principles I want to demonstrate is how such very
simple devices produce endlessly complex and fascinating motion.
The rightmost panel shows the motion of the sculpture in phase
space. The horizontal distance in the image represents the angular
position of the first wheel. The vertical position in the image
represents the angular velocity of the second wheel. The color of
the ribbon represents the angular position of the second wheel, and
the width of the ribbon represents the angular velocity of the first
wheel. Using this representation scheme, I can display all four
quantities that determine the state of the sculpture at any moment.
When the sculpture was started, the ribbon began near the right
side of the panel in black. The ribbon unfolded in time as the
sculpture moved until I stopped it with the ribbon at the upper part
of the panel in red.
A simulator movie of the center panel shows the motion of the
sculpture in real time for the first one-hundred seconds of motion.
The movie file is about 32 MB, so it may take a while to download.
It is in the Quicktime format.
would not exhibit esthetically interesting motion for many choices
of relative size, weight, and other design parameters. If I had to
build many variations of the device in order to determine a good
design, it would be costly in materials and time. To avoid this
expense, I developed a numerical simulation of the device. After
experimenting with the design parameters of the device until a
satisfactory set has been found, that specific device will be
constructed and will be the physical embodiment of the sculpture.
The animation of the numerical simulation (that I call the
Chaotron) is interesting to view without building the physical
device. In fact, I can demonstrate some aspects of the motion
better using the numerical simulation.
A view of the sculpture simulator screen. Click on the image to see
a larger size. Read about the computer science issues here.
The leftmost panel allows the user to start and stop the simulation
and shows information about how it is progressing. The center
panel shows a three-dimensional view of the sculpture. In this
case, it is composed of two wheels; one attached to a fixed
freely-rotating axle, and the second attached to a freely-rotating
axle on the rim of the first wheel. The wheels are heavier on one
side than the other, so when they are pulled from their resting
position and released, gravity sets them in motion. One of the
primary physics principles I want to demonstrate is how such very
simple devices produce endlessly complex and fascinating motion.
The rightmost panel shows the motion of the sculpture in phase
space. The horizontal distance in the image represents the angular
position of the first wheel. The vertical position in the image
represents the angular velocity of the second wheel. The color of
the ribbon represents the angular position of the second wheel, and
the width of the ribbon represents the angular velocity of the first
wheel. Using this representation scheme, I can display all four
quantities that determine the state of the sculpture at any moment.
When the sculpture was started, the ribbon began near the right
side of the panel in black. The ribbon unfolded in time as the
sculpture moved until I stopped it with the ribbon at the upper part
of the panel in red.
A simulator movie of the center panel shows the motion of the
sculpture in real time for the first one-hundred seconds of motion.
The movie file is about 32 MB, so it may take a while to download.
It is in the Quicktime format.
| Copyright 2008 James W. Wiggins. All rights reserved. |
Header image: A frame from
the sculpture numerical
simulation movie. August,
2008.
the sculpture numerical
simulation movie. August,
2008.
