Square and Star

This ambiguous cylinder was created for Math 401: Mathematics through 3D Printing at George Mason University. This project explores the concept of optical illusion and the projection of objects onto perpendicular planes. To see the illusion, we view the object at a 45-degree angle.

Ambiguous cylinders were first created by Kokichi Sugihara, a professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. This 3D ambiguous cylinder is a square when viewed from one direction and a four-pointed star when viewed from the other direction.

Using Mathematica, I designed functions representing both the star and the square and combined them over their respective intervals. The function for the star was a peicewise function, and a square was made by the absolute value function. The addition and subtraction of these functions create an object that manifests both eye and mirror views.