Google's Logo...

TIG

It's 'Bucky Ball' 25th Anniversary [i.e. the awesome thinking of Buckminster Fuller]..........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene etc etc etc.............

shura

Thanks for the enlightment TIG! Didn't even know that carbon molecules are called fullerene.
Recommendations for a book on B.F. most welcome

d12dozr

Its just the same as usual for me is it only available for countries other that USA?

Edit: I can see it now...time difference? Neat...its animated!

tfdesign

I bet Bucky wouldn't be moaning about SU8. I reckon he'd love SketchUp!!

charly2008

Hi,

does anyone have an idea how to construct such a ball in Sketchup. I can not think of anything at the moment.

Charly

Aerilius

http://groups.google.com/group/GeodesicHelp?pli=1
TaffGoch creates geodesic domes etc. Have a look at his site.

pilou

And all his models are on 3Dwarehouse

TaffGoch

@charly2008 said:

"...does anyone have an idea how to construct such a ball in Sketchup. I can not think of anything at the moment."

Specifically, Charly, this 3D-Warehouse model:
Buckyball Construction Tutorial

I found that, with older browsers, the Google logo is simply an animated gif...

...but, with modern Mozilla browsers, Google loads an ActiveX program, which draws the 3D-buckyball that can be manipulated with your mouse, in realtime. I realized this when poking through the html code, and found "(1+Math.sqrt(5))/2"

For those readers having (somewhat) esoteric math knowledge, you'll recognize this as the formula for "phi," the golden number, or golden ratio. That's what I used to create a perfect icosahedron, leading ultimately to the buckyball. This was the subject of a discussion here, a few years ago:
SketchUp Community Forums > SketchUp Tutorials > Truncated Icosahedron

I'm kinda curious about who, at Google, wrote the ActiveX html code for the logo. It's nicely implemented.

-Taff

charly2008

Hi Pilou and TaffGoch,

Thankyou very much for your help. TaffGoch your method is very helpfull.

Charly

Box

I'm always facinated by the optical illusions these things create.

When it's in it's horizontal spin, which way is it spinning?