Object Details
- teacher of maker
- Wheeler, Albert Harry
- Chaffe, Robert
- Description
- Suppose two opposite sides of a rectangle are joined by straight lines parallel to the other two sides. Lifting two opposite corners of the rectangle—and keeping the lines taut—one obtains a saddle-shaped figure known as a hyperbolic paraboloid.
- This model of a hyperbolic paraboloid was made from balsa wood by Robert Chaffe, a high school student of A. Harry Wheeler in the class of 1937. It is likely that this person is Robert C. Chaffe (1918–1991) who was born in Connecticut, attended high school in Worcester, Massachusetts, graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1942, and seems to have spent his career as a salesman and sales engineer in Worcester and nearby Auburn.
- References:
- Gerd Fischer, Mathematical Models, vol. 2, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1986, pp. 3–4.
- U.S. Census records.
- Massachusetts city directories.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Helen M. Wheeler
- 1937
- ID Number
- MA.304723.180
- accession number
- 304723
- catalog number
- 304723.180
- Object Name
- geometric model
- Physical Description
- wood, balsa (overall material)
- tan (overall color)
- cut and glued (overall production method/technique)
- Measurements
- average spatial: 12.5 cm x 21.6 cm x 15.5 cm; 4 29/32 in x 8 1/2 in x 6 3/32 in
- place made
- United States: Massachusetts, Worcester
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Mathematical Association of America Objects
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_1066641
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-047d-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
