¶ Tensegrity Clothesline (1)
← Tensegrity Basic Tensegrity Structures Three and Only | Tensegrity Clothesline (2) →
RBF Definitions
Surprising behaviors are found in tensegrity structures. The illustration shows a house and a tree and a clothesline. The line hangs low between the house and the tree. To raise the line so that the clothes to be dried will not sweep the ground, the line is elevated by a pole that has one end thrust against the ground and the other end pushed outwardly against the line. The line tightens with the pole’s outer end at the vertex of an angle stretched into the line. The line’s angle shows that the line is yielding in the direction away from the thrusting pole. "As the clothesline tightens and bends, it always yields away from the pushing strut. In spherical tensegrity structures the islanded compression struts pull the tension lines to angle toward the strut ends. “When we release a compression member from a tensegrity sphere, one end does not thrust by the tension member to which it was fastened in a circumferential direction. It was not fastened in thrust or shear. It was not pushing circumferentially. It was resisting being compressed, and like a cork in”
