I was originally acquainted with geodesic structures back in college of 2004 when I found out about Buckminster Fuller's fullerene "buckyball" - a molecule made of carbon atoms which can form into a sphere. Actually it was probably much earlier than that, as I knew footballs were made like that, though I wasn't really interested in them at the time. What intrigued me was how straight lines of the same length could form into a spherical structure of such complex geometry, consisting of triangles, hexagons, and pentagons. I wanted to find out how to go about constructing such a structure myself since, each time I was staring at say, a geodesic dome, it confused the hell out of me. Unfortunately, it was much more complicated than just constructing it out of lines. I eventually found out that there are many types of geodesic structures, and not all of the lines were of equal length, but all of which were guided by an underlying mathematical order, which I had to study more on.
- After, doing a few searches, I came across excellent geodesic calculators from http://www.desertdomes.com/ and http://simplydifferently.org/.
- I also found a free geodesic dome design software that you can download here: http://www.filetransit.com/view.php?id=114819
- Another great place for geodesic information can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/geodesichelp when I was trying to find info on how to make geodesic domes on Google SketchUp.
- There's also a very helpful PDF file on geodesic mathematics that someone suggested I take a look at: http://www.geometer.org/mathcircles/geodesic.pdf
- Here's a PDF informational paper about geodesic domes by Giulio Neri, which illustrates a wide range of dome designs: http://www.giulioneri.com/Domes/Paper%20on%20Domes%201and2.pdf
- Additionally, a comprehensive guide to geodesic geometry including Fuller's methods.
- Finally, more information can be found by joining this Facebook page and website, GeodesicDome.info
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