Object Details
- L. Brill
- Description
- Students at the technical high school in Munich, working under the direction of Alexander Brill, developed a series of wire models of minimal surfaces that was first published by Ludwig Brill in 1885. A minimal surface is the surface of smallest area of all the surfaces bounded by a closed curve in space. Its mean curvature is zero. Minimal surfaces are often represented by soap films, as was the intention with this model.
- This, the first model in the series, is in two parts. One is a wire circle with three wire supports and the second circle of the same diameter with a handle. If the circles are held together, a soap film spans both of them. Separating the circles produces a film in the shape of a catenoid and then, when the circles are separated further, circles span the two discs separately.
- This example was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893.
- References:
- L. Brill, Catalog mathematischer Modelle. . ., Darmstadt: L. Brill,1892, p. 21, 85.
- G. Fischer, Mathematical Models: Commentary, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1986, pp. 41-43.
- A. T. Fomenko, The Plateau Problem, Part I, Historical Survey, New York: Gordon and Breach, 1990, pp. 22-34.
- J. Plateau, Statique expérimentale et théorique des liquides soumis aux seules forces moléculaires, vol. 1, Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1873, pp. 93-103. This work is mentioned in the Brill catalog.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Wesleyan University
- 1892
- ID Number
- 1985.0112.106
- catalog number
- 1985.0112.106
- accession number
- 1985.0112
- Object Name
- geometric model
- geometric model
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 7.2 cm x 8 cm x 8 cm; 2 27/32 in x 3 5/32 in x 3 5/32 in
- place made
- Germany: Hesse, Darmstadt
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_693982
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-1380-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
