¶ Balls Coming Together (1)
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Index Entry
Balls Coming Together:
"If you take one sphere, it can, in a sense, go anywhere in the Universe. I have another sphere in the Universe and the two come together. They can do anything in the Universe except go through each other. If they become tangent they roll around on each other very tightly.
“Now I have a third sphere here. I had one sphere first and it was all alone; then I have two; they can roll around on each other. From the distance you see just the profile of a dumbbell, but they are very free to roll. Now along comes a third sphere and it nests in the valley. This makes a train of gears with each one geared to the next one. Even numbers of gears will always reciprocate and the odd numbers will always block. This way-- a plus or minus, or whatever it is-- it is going to block. So no longer can those balls roll in a plane on the triangle which they form. If one tries to go one way it will make the next go the other way; and one can’t be moving in two different ways, so odd numbers will always block.”
¶ Citations
- RBF to Verner Smythe, NYC, reel 1, p.4, 25 Feb’69
