3D printed Sierpinski tetrahedron

The second item of note from my rummage on Shapeways this morning is Wahtah's Sierpinski tetrahedron, a fractal pyramid with 499,994 faces.

Sierpinski tetrahedron

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: 3d printing • fractals • happy mutants • math • sculpture

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http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

OMG!!! Gimme!!!!!!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  When you reply to a spam comment instead of flagging it, you cement that comment (minus its actual text) into the thread. In some cases, the username is a link to an attack site.
  - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
    
    Oops. Shoulda flagged, huh?
http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

how arabesque.
sockdoll

That really is a lovely little thing. It’s grand, living in the future.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  This : )
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1492664325 Khama Ksk

Waclaw Sierpinski…
Guest

I saw one of these back in the 90′s. Then the acid wore off.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  It wears off?
  - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
    
    Not really. You just kinda get used to it. And I took it in the 70′s. And BTW, that whole story about thinking you can fly. Total horseshit. The story probably got started when the CIA shot one of their own in the head and then threw him out of a hotel window because he was about to spill the beans of them experimenting on random US citizens. Think I made this up? Read Ron Jonson’s “Them!” And you though staring at goats was weird.
    - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
      
      BTW, the goats were de-bleated. Wouldn’t want to have them making noise while you were stopping their hearts by staring at them.
  - Guest
    
    so they say
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001050827729 James Hall

Funny, it only looks like 4096 faces to me:
http://www.sierpinskitetrahedron.com/Did%20you%20know.html
Ambiguity

Shapeways charges by the cubic centimeter.

If I’m not mistaken, the Sierpinski tetrahedron converges to zero volume. He should have made it more detailed, and he could have gotten it for free!
jhertzli

You can think of the Sierpinski tetrahedron as the graph of the exclusive or function. If you plot a point at each point (x,y,z) where x= y XOR z, you get this.
Blair Berkelmans

This may be the most efficient dust-collector ever, but I still want one.
Brad Ackerman

The Sierpinski gasket makes me want to cry.