Matter Collection
The Oloid
Material
The Oloid
Brushed Brass
Wake Concept Store
Shop 3-8, G/F.
Far East Mansion, 5-6 Middle Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon Hong Kong SAR
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A desktop sculpture that brings art, science, beauty and technology together in a single piece of solid metal.
Perfect for thinkers, makers, visionaries, learners, teachers, and even for children.
The oloid is an intriguing and widely unknown geometric shape with amazing mathematical and aesthetic properties. It was discovered in 1929 by German sculptor, inventor and mathematician Paul Schatz.
The mysterious shape
The oloid's surface is a developable surface, which means that patches of it can be flattened into a plane. It develops its entire surface while rolling: at some point during the rolling movement, every point of the oloid's surface touches the plane on which it is rolling.
Unlike most axially symmetric objects (cylinders, spheres, etc.), its center of mass rolls in a meandering motion rather than a linear one when rolling on a flat surface. The distance between the oloid's center of mass and the rolling surface has two minima and two maxima in each rolling cycle.
What is so special about the ultimate solid of constant width?
Despite its curved shape, it moves in a perfectly straight line.
It rolls despite its non-round shape.
Although it has sharp edges, its motion is gentle and smooth.
Every point of its surface touches the ground as it rolls.
Its surface area is the same as that of a sphere of the same radius.
It has incredible functional properties; the oloid shape can be used for water treatment, as a propeller in navigation, or as stirrer in biotechnology.