Ambiguous Heart

thingiverse

I will add pictures of the object when finished printing. Design of an Ambiguous Object for George Mason University's Math 401: Mathematics Through 3D Printing Course. Inspired by Kokichi Sugihara, a Japanese mathematics professor who won second place at "The Best Illusion of the Year Contest" in 2016. He designed a Cylinder Illusion where from one perspective the top of the shape looked like a circle and from a 180-degree view it looked like a square. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWfFco7K9v8) This video link can give a visual of the phenomenon. It was my class's task to create a similar illusion with different shapes. For my shape, I chose to design a heart where from one angle the shape looks like a heart and from a 180-degree view the design also shows a heart facing the same direction. I created my heart in Mathematica. I created the heart with these 3 curves {Sqrt[1/4 - (x + 1/2)^2], Sqrt[1/4 - (x - 1/2)^2], -1 + Abs[x]} and took the inverse to flip the heart. In the code, I tried to make it easier for myself by assigning curves to variables as shown in the pictures. I worked in two halves as well to make it easier, then merged them together on the Ultimaker application before printing.