A curious gift brings balance to Jones

October 30, 2024
uofc-receives-Gömböc

The University of Chicago received the gift of a Gömböc sculpture from Hungary. A gömböc is any member of a class of convex, three-dimensional and homogeneous bodies that are mono-monostatic, meaning that they have just one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium when resting on a flat surface. So, no matter how the Gömböc sculpture is moved—even it put on its side—it will right itself. The existence of this class was conjectured by the Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold in 1995 and proven in 2006 by the Hungarian scientists Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi by constructing at first a mathematical example and subsequently a physical example. UChicago noted that the mathematics and physics of the Gömböc have many applications and implications in various scientific disciplines.

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