716.00 Complex Continuity and Discontinuity in Tensegrity Structures

716.01 The terminal junctures of four three-strut tensegrity octahedra are all 180-degree junctures. They appear to be compressionally continuous, while the central coherence of the three struts appears visibly discontinuous. The complex tensegrity presents a visibly deceptive appearance to the unwary observer. The two joined legs of the basic units appear as single units; as such, they appear to be primary elements of the complex tensegrity, whereas we learn from construction that our elements are the three-strut octahedra and that the cohering principle of the simplest elements is tensegrity.

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Fig. 716.01.

716.02 The fundamental, repeatable unit used to form the spherical tensegrity structures is a flattened form of the basic three-strut tensegrity octahedron.

716.03 The basic 12-frequency tensegrity matrix employs collections of the basic three-strut units joined at dead center between single- and double-bonded discontinuity. The shaded triangles in the illustration represent the sites for each of the three-strut units. This matrix is applied to the spherical triacontrahedronconsequently, the large 12-frequency rhombus (illustration 716.01C ) is one-thirtieth of the entire sphere.