Nice Egg on a Budget

Last week I invited all readers to submit their fun math stories and puzzles and already received two interesting pointers. One is from Jerome - one of our best puzzle solvers. Jerome lives in Alberta, Canada, where enemies are rare, politics is uneventful, weather is peaceful, and people can devote a lot of time to things that really matter, like food. They grow it, they make it, they eat it and apparently build monuments to the food they like.

Jerome sent me links to the Sausage Monument in Mundare:


Pyrogy (on a fork) Monument in Glendon:


 And a Ukranian Easter Egg Monument in Vegreville: 

The Easter Egg is called Pysanka and it commemorates the Ukranian heritage of the large part of Vegreville population. It measures 25.7 feet long and stands 31 feet high. Complicated geometry of the egg shape made the design of the Pysanka a highly complex project. Professor Ronald Resch, a computer scientist at the University of Utah, agreed to take on the design work.

So, how do you build a giant replica of a chicken egg accurately, decoratively, and inexpensively in 1980th?
According to one of the Resch's students, they chose not to use the usual method of splitting the egg surface into latitudinal and longitudinal lines as this would produce a very large number of un-indentical parts that would drive project costs up. Instead, they decided to approximate the egg surface with small equilateral triangular tiles made of aluminium. Professor Resch already worked on similar but much simpler curved surfaces for some dome architectural projects. He started with folding paper experiments and noted interesting symmetrical patterns that un-folded paper creates.  Over the period of a year together with his students Resch designed a special computer program that can figure out the numerous folds that can lead to the egg shape. You can see all the math details in this old paper by one of Resch's students, James Blinn, that became one of the star computer scientists. They then produced the egg on the University's flat-bed plotter machine, out of aluminium, replacing the plotter pen with the milling tool. Each side of the equilateral triangle was made to be 1 foot long. The triangles were anodized in three colors and bolted together.

The Pysanka ended up as an immense jigsaw puzzle containing 524 star patterns, 1,108 equilateral triangles, 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts, and 177 internal struts. This believed to be the first case of laying a computer generated egg.


  1. Very cool, thanks for sharing. BTW, the third image seems to be missing on the server.




  4. ugg outlet,
    ray ban sunglasses,
    ugg uk,
    michael kors handbags,
    air jordan 11,
    longchamp outlet,
    soccer jerseys,
    winter coats,
    ugg boots,
    soccer jerseys,
    cyber monday 2015,
    canada goose jackets,
    hollister uk,
    oakley sunglasses,
    louis vuitton outlet,
    ghd hair straighteners,
    michael kors outlet,
    lululemon outlet,
    ugg boots,
    nike free,
    louis vuitton handbags,
    nike trainers,
    ray ban sunglasses,
    ralph lauren shirts,

  5. 20151016xiaodaige
    tods outlet store,
    lacoste shirts,
    louis vuitton outlet store,
    new york giants jerseys,
    cleveland cavaliers,
    rolex watches,
    converse sneakers,
    philadelphia eagles jerseys,
    nike foamposite,
    michael kors canada,
    los angeles clippers jerseys,
    ferragamo shoes,
    canada goose coats,
    kansas city chiefs jerseys,
    canada goose jackets,
    nfl jerseys,
    nike trainers uk,
    soccer jerseys wholesale,
    cheap ugg boots,
    nike running shoes,
    hollister clothing store,
    nba jerseys,
    nfl jersey wholesale,
    cheap oakley sunglasses,
    coach outlet store,
    new york knicks,


    Free Games Online | free games | free online games | Free Games Online | free games | StickRPG2 | Stick RPG 2 | Stick RPG | StickRPG2 | StickRPG2 |


  9. Great! Thanks for your post, it's very informative!

  10. Great post. This post is exactly what I need. Thank you.

  11. Thanks for sharing this post.It is very extraordinary post.
    <a href=">Examhelpline</a>

