Math Craft Inspiration of the Week: The Mathematical Lego Sculptures of Andrew Lipson

Andrew Lipson builds sculptures based off of Mathematical objects using standard Lego bricks. He has built models of knots, Mobius strips, Klein bottles, Tori, Hoberman spheres (using Lego technic pieces), and recreations of M.C. Escher works.  

Below are a few images and brief descriptions of his amazing work.

Figure 8 knot:

Mobius Strip:

Another Mobius strip with Lego men walking on one side of it—the only side!

Klein bottle (The 2d equivalent of the Mobius Strip with only one surface instead of an inside and outside.  These can only truly exist in 4-dimensions!)

The "inside" of the Klein bottle:

Bour's Minimal Surface:

Recreation of Esher's Ascending and Descending:

Recreation of Escher's Belvedere:

Picture revealing how the optical illusion for Belvedere works:

Andrew has ton's of other models that he has built in lego.  You should check more images and some descriptions of how he built them in Lego section of his website. 

What do you think of Andrew's Sculptures?  Do they inspire you to build mathematical sculptures or just play with Legos?  Please comment below.

Have a great weekend and if you create any math-related art, please share with all of us on the corkboard. If you find something cool on the web please share that as well.  I hope to share community content in a post on Monday.