Greetings,
This post is a continuation of a series on "the allotropes" of carbon. The diligent reader may recall that an allotrope is one form, among two or more, of a chemical element.
Perhaps, among the most intriguing forms of the carbon element is the Buckminsterfullerene (aka "Bucky Ball"). The Bucky Ball geometry was first discovered by the great scientist and architect, Buckminster Fuller. Although Dr. Fuller was not the original inventor of a geometric sphere structure (attributed to Walther Bauersfeld in 1922), he was the first to coin the name, "Geodesic Dome". Dr. Fuller also developed a type of 3-dimensional Geometry with the triangle as its basis. He believed that the tetrahedron (a perfectly symmetrical 4-sided (3 up + a bottom) pyramid shape) is the most stable geometric form in all of nature! Indeed, Chemists now know that a vast array of molecular structures actually have (or are based upon) the tetrahedral geometry including, the exceedingly-stable substances, water and diamond. Dr. Fuller also invented an important principle of structural engineering, known as tensegrity (an acronym for "tensile integrity unit"), for which he was awarded a patent in 1962. A particularly stable structure, invented (or one might say, "discovered") by Fuller and constructed using his "tensegrities", is a geodesic sphere consisting of 60 primary nodes.
In the late 1980's, Scientists discovered a new form of carbon with the exact same geometry as Dr. Fuller's 60-node geodesic sphere! Like Dr. Fuller's structures, this new form of carbon was found to be very stable. The existence of this new carbon allotrope, which became known as "Buckerminsterfullerene", is a testament to Dr. Fuller's engineering genious, but also exemplifies the man's firm belief that there is a powerful intelligence at work in the universe, particularly at the molecular level of matter!
That's all for now. Thank you for reading!
A Publication of http://ExcellenceInLearning.biz
This post is a continuation of a series on "the allotropes" of carbon. The diligent reader may recall that an allotrope is one form, among two or more, of a chemical element.
Perhaps, among the most intriguing forms of the carbon element is the Buckminsterfullerene (aka "Bucky Ball"). The Bucky Ball geometry was first discovered by the great scientist and architect, Buckminster Fuller. Although Dr. Fuller was not the original inventor of a geometric sphere structure (attributed to Walther Bauersfeld in 1922), he was the first to coin the name, "Geodesic Dome". Dr. Fuller also developed a type of 3-dimensional Geometry with the triangle as its basis. He believed that the tetrahedron (a perfectly symmetrical 4-sided (3 up + a bottom) pyramid shape) is the most stable geometric form in all of nature! Indeed, Chemists now know that a vast array of molecular structures actually have (or are based upon) the tetrahedral geometry including, the exceedingly-stable substances, water and diamond. Dr. Fuller also invented an important principle of structural engineering, known as tensegrity (an acronym for "tensile integrity unit"), for which he was awarded a patent in 1962. A particularly stable structure, invented (or one might say, "discovered") by Fuller and constructed using his "tensegrities", is a geodesic sphere consisting of 60 primary nodes.
In the late 1980's, Scientists discovered a new form of carbon with the exact same geometry as Dr. Fuller's 60-node geodesic sphere! Like Dr. Fuller's structures, this new form of carbon was found to be very stable. The existence of this new carbon allotrope, which became known as "Buckerminsterfullerene", is a testament to Dr. Fuller's engineering genious, but also exemplifies the man's firm belief that there is a powerful intelligence at work in the universe, particularly at the molecular level of matter!
That's all for now. Thank you for reading!
A Publication of http://ExcellenceInLearning.biz
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