Geodesic Math and How to Use It

It was 1976—twenty-five years after R. Buckminster Fuller introduced geodesic domes when literary critic Hugh Kenner published this fully-illustrated practical manual for their construction. Now, some twenty-five years later, Geodesic Math and How to Use It again presents a systematic method of design and provides a step-by-step method for producing mathematical specifications for orthodox geodesic domes, as well as for a variety of elliptical, super-elliptical, and other nonspherical contours.

Out of print since 1990, Geodesic Math and How To Use It is California's most requested backlist title. This edition is fully illustrated with complete original appendices.

Hugh Kenner (1923-2003) was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Georgia. He is the author of dozens of well-known and highly regarded books of literary criticism, and is also the author of Bucky: A Guided Tour of Buckminster Fuller (1973).

What This Book Is

Part One Tensegritty
1. Weight vs. Tension
2. Spherical Tensegrities
3. Complex Spherical Tensegrities
4. Tendon System Minima
5. Geodesic Subdivision
6. Rigid Tensegrities

Part Two Geodesics
7. Great Circles
8. Symmetry Systems
9. The Spherical-Coordinate System
10. Breakdown Systems
11. Choosing a Polyhedron
12. Using the Tables
13. Ellipses and Superellipses
14. Truncations
15. An Advanced Problem
16. Space Frames
17. About Angles

Part Three Dala
18. Class I Octahedral Coordinates
19. Class II Method 1 Octahedral Coordinates
20. Class I Method 1 Icosahedral Coordinates
21. Class II Method 1 Icosahedral Coordinates
22. Tetrahedral Coordinates
23. Class II Method 3 Coordinates and Chord Factors

Appendices
APPENDIX I Writing Class II Method 3 Coordinates
APPENDIX II Calculator Routines
APPENDIX III HP-65 Programs