Scaling

I used up my supply of recycled struts from my geodesic dome, well, the larger length. Fuller claimed that the ratio of strut to string length remains constant independent of scale - so far, my scaling attempts had quite some errors in it.

As I was curious whether I can use eight centrally joined tendon trinities to build a six strut icosa without any support than my body and dexterity, and furniture nearby. The symmetry of this structure made it so much more elegant (at least conceptually) than most other tensegrity builds. I prepared eight corner joints with three tendons each, based on calculating the string:strut ration from a smaller and larger model.

I even got fancy and used two different colours for the tendons, I hope the different qualities of the string used won't create problems later on. After only one minor hick-up the model came together nicely, with the length I measured being precisely what I wanted according to my calculations. I can imagine that even a bit less tension would provide a stable (not disassembling) model.

The tetrahedron survived some wild storms and still hangs in its slightly hidden space, while three other outdoor installations have gone.