CTK Insights

21 Jan

Auxetic Behavior and Tesselation

John Sharp did this again. He sent me a link to a curious piece of information. Nearly a century ago, German physicist Woldemar Voigt discovered strange phenomenon in iron pyrite crystals (also known as Fool's Gold). His research suggested that the crystals somehow grew thicker when stretched. Voigt could not explain the strange behavior (he named it auxetic), and no practical applications existed at the time, so researchers ignored the work for decades.

More recently, it was observed by the scientists at the University of Malta that the Dancing Rectangles tessellation presents an all-purpose mathematical model of auxetic behavior. The model reveals that when the material is stretched, the rectangles-called rigid, rotating subunits-rotate relative to one another, lowering the material's density but increasing its thickness.

There is a dynamic demonstration and an interactive illustration.

Related posts:

  1. Fascination with Tessellations
  2. Gambling and Penchant for Irrational Behavior

2 Responses to “Auxetic Behavior and Tesselation”

  1. 1
    Iris Mayo Says:

    Your blog (CTK Insights » Blog Archive » Auxetic Behavior and Tesselation) won't display appropriately on my apple iphone - you might wanna try and change that :) Iris Mayo

  2. 2
    admin Says:

    I'd be grateful if you could tell me what did you see and what was inappropriate. I do not have iPhone to test the appearances.

    Thank you

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