Willmore Surface Sculpture
Art Durham County Durham

Willmore Surface Sculpture

Art In Durham, County Durham

When art meets mathematics you get a geometric granite sculpture.

How do you express a mathematical formula in a sculpture? Peter Sales and Bill Kataky produced a 4-lobed Willmore Torus in light grey granite.

The monument stands near the Calman Centre at the Mountjoy Campus of Durham University. A stone plaque gives some information

Willmore energy quantifies

How much a given surface deviates from a round sphere in differential geometry.

It is useful in understanding cell membranes

The University owns this sculpture along with many other pieces that were procured to the tune of 1.4 million pounds. It was all part of the 2012 build.

The sculpture is composed of two linked tori twisted to a square shape. I wonder how they came to decide the angles and curves?

The torus shape is best described as a ringed donut, and has many applications such as lifebuoys, o-rings, and glass beads

Thomas Willmore (1919 to 2005) studied differential geometry. That is someone who studies the geometry of smooth shapes which dates back to ancient Greece, and Roman times. The word Torus comes from latin meaning bulge/round cushion.

When it comes to understanding the formular for Willmore energy all I can say is Ich bin ein Berliner!

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How To Find Willmore Surface Sculpture

Where Is Willmore Surface Sculpture?

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Lat / Long

54.76764, -1.572227

What three words

purple.useful.became

Where To Park For Willmore Surface Sculpture?

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Lat / Long

54.768906, 54.768906

What three words

riots.ripe.body

Paid street parking nearby

Contributed by Rosalind Parker

Thanks for reading through and getting to the end of this post. I enjoy exploring the Fabulous North (Especially as a Southerner residing up North). I like 'snippets' of information, and more so, if they are obscure, amusing or meaningful. The photographs are taken on a mobile phone, without any enhancements.

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Willmore Surface Sculpture was listed in Art // County Durham // Durham