Understanding Boy's Surface: An immersion of the real projective plane in 3-space - 2nd Place Pure Mathematics Poster Session, Dartmouth College; designed, modeled and constructed by Addy Adewusi, 3-D Model: Maya, Physical Model: styrofoam, acrylic paint
The objective of the project was to develop and present a model of Boy's surface that is colored and constructed in a manner that 1) explains how to traverse the surface and 2) directly connects its topology to the one of the real projective plane. The result is a polygonal Maya model and a physical 48' x 48' model of Boy's surface that uses gradients of familiar primary colors to symbolize the ability to traverse from one area of the surface to another, while areas without gradients have the characteristic of "passing through" each other.
Background: The real projective plane is a non-orientable, two-dimensional surface. Topologically, it is formed by glaring a disk to a Mobius strip. The projective plane cannot be embedded in 3-space with out self intersection or multiple points, causing its visualization to be difficult.
To see the poster's webpage on Dartmouth's Mathematics Department website click here.
Event photo link here.