3-7-2022
Tetrastix Shadows
Figure 36: A tetrastix casting a shadow.
Slight differences in perspective can dramatically change how tetrastix are viewed. Beautiful tetrastix patterns can be revealed by using light to cast shadows from these forms.
Figure 37: Tetrastix viewed down 4-fold axis <100>, casting a shadow projection of the 3-fold axis <111>.
Figure 38: Tetrastix viewed down a 3-fold axis with 4-fold projected shadow.
The sun can be used as a light source to produce a shadow that falls at a right angle on a piece of paper (a plane). To take photos of the shadow projections (figures 37,38, 39), a small amount of thread was used to suspend and position the tetrastix. The tetrastix shadow projections can only be achieved through holding the model and or light source at specific angles. Thus, photographing tetrastix to show both the 3-fold and the 4-fold symmetry simultaneously can prove to be a fun challenge.
Figure 39: Tetrastix with 4-fold shadow, captured on a sunny day.
Figure 38: A tetrastix set against a light.
Figure 40: Tetrastix 3-fold shadow.
Projecting the shadows of different tetrastix designs reveals unexpected patterns. Tetrastix shadows are a reduction of dimensionality that highlight some of tetrastix's underlying symmetry.
The following blog post will cover designing tetrastix with 2-dimensional grids.
copyright 2022 Anduriel Widmark
Posts:
1- Polystix blog introduction.
5- Polystix modeling materials.
9- Tetrastix shadow projections.
15- Hexastix design variations.