Saturday, December 29, 2007

A Minor History of Giant Spheres

Buckminster Fuller proposes the "Cloud Nine" project, a levitating city of tensegrity spheres, each a mile in diameter. Because the surface-to-volume ratio of such spheres would be vanishingly small, Fuller calculated that if trapped solar energy raised their internal temperature by a mere one degree, they would be able to float like balloons.

(Via Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society.)


Positively amazing stuff.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Gottorp Globe is mind blowing, had never seen it before, loved the illustration.

Michael