Spheroids and Ellipsoids

I am working with my Analytic Geometry students on using the handibot to create Speroids and Ellipsoids. We have made progress. We start with the classic equations on paper, turn these equations into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and copy the numbers into an *.sbp file. At first we just went with the CP (cut a Circle from a Point), several calculated concentric circles and with one plunge depth. After burning a bit (hard maple does that), we changed to making several repeat cuts with about 1/16th of an inch plunge for each cut. We broke down the speroid into 14 separate 10 mm disks. We made 7 walnut disks and 7 hard maple disks. We found the handibot did not like using mm settings so we converted everything into inches. Fun math problem.

I really like the way it turned out. The students really understood the geometry. They continue to struggle with basic algebra!

What fun!

Great to hear, Tim! Thanks for sharing. We'd love to see pictures too.

David

I have put the information for the making of the spheroid in a blog. Please let me know if the url works.

Blog on creating a Spheroid using a handibot

that is great, Tim! Thanks for sharing!

David