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I've played around with building an Escher box by building a balsa wood model.
I used the scale of 1 foot = 1 inch. My version of the box is close to 6x3x3".
If one holds the box at various angles, then one can see how one might construct
an Escher (or is it Escher-like in this case) box. One upright must be removed
from the far back and placed on the top front long rod, and a section cut out of
another rod. (Details in the last paragraph.)
I can cut the rod with an Exacto knife and produce a pretty fair box, but I
would like to make a larger box to full scale. I suspect I can figure out how to
make the cut using strings extending from a point of view to the appropriate
places on the box. However, in this age of graphics, perhaps there's someone who
is savvy with them to produce the positions of exact cut and placement of the
opposite corner rod? Any help would be appreciated. Maybe Autodesk or QuickCAD.
Maybe someone has already done it. I haven't decided whether I want to make this
from 2x2s or 2x4s (feet).
There's an interesting effect that can be produced with the box. If someone
stands inside the box, the viewer further sees an interesting illusion. I found
an image showing someone standing inside at, I believe, a museum site, but have
no idea where the link went.
There are four 6" members and eight 3" members. The balsa rods are 1/4" square.
It turns out the long side is really 6.5" but that doesn't matter for this
message. See <http://home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/misc5.html> for images.
Unfortunately, I can no longer find the web site where I found the
image or another one that were helpful. It's fairly difficult to see how to
build this from the jpg image, but I can make an image of my balsa wood model
that make it clear what it all looks like.
--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
"I know that defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never
studied the law of gravity." -- Bugs Bunny
Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
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