It's possible to put 24 lines on a cubic surface. 27 lines is possible, but I don't have a great picture for that surface. It turns out that the 24 lines can be built with Zome. I'm thinking that might be the basis of a great puzzle, if those lines could be transformed into identical spiraled rods, so that all the intersections were handled by grooves. Can anyone put all those pieces of math together to make a physical realization?
Can 24 lines on a cubic surface be realized as 24 identical spiral rods?
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algebraic-geometry
differential-geometry
puzzle
math-software
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0Well, any helix can be screwed in and out of position without disturbing anything else. And I think my construction should work for identical rods too; the random variables will just be the rotation of each helix about its axis. The structural integrity of the arrangement is a more interesting issue though. – 2012-12-31