Math to the rescue
Mar. 26th, 2018 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrOnce upon a time, I was a math major. Well, art and math double major, I took the math classes for fun. And one of the things I remember from math is this: conical forms are self-similar.
What this means is, if you take a regular cone that's, say, six inches high, and slice off the base an inch from and parallel to the bottom, the second, truncated cone is proportional to the original.
Or, to reverse the process, if you continue a cone several inches, following the same angle, the new, bigger cone is also proportional.
This is the surviving, base section of my quail sculpture. You'll note the top of the piece. It's conical.
Well, conoidal, actually, a teardrop in cross-section. but the angle is consistent, so if I could extend it by the correct amount--about a quarter inch, by my calculations--I should have a base proportional to the original, wet-clay version of this one. That I can build a complete replacement quail body on. I'm thinking thin, flexible cardboard; Denise always has a stash with her bookbinding supplies.
Watch this space...
What this means is, if you take a regular cone that's, say, six inches high, and slice off the base an inch from and parallel to the bottom, the second, truncated cone is proportional to the original.
Or, to reverse the process, if you continue a cone several inches, following the same angle, the new, bigger cone is also proportional.
This is the surviving, base section of my quail sculpture. You'll note the top of the piece. It's conical.
Well, conoidal, actually, a teardrop in cross-section. but the angle is consistent, so if I could extend it by the correct amount--about a quarter inch, by my calculations--I should have a base proportional to the original, wet-clay version of this one. That I can build a complete replacement quail body on. I'm thinking thin, flexible cardboard; Denise always has a stash with her bookbinding supplies.
Watch this space...