LEGO Technic Chemistry Lab - The LEGO Molecular System

[DrJB]

10 hours ago, Didumos69 said:

It would make a nice poster on the ceiling above a dentist chair...

I tried to build this with physical parts and I can tell you this. Putting this together is much more difficult in real life than it is in LDD.

Can you show only a single layer? It seems the construction I ended up with is twice as dense ...

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by DrJB

[aeh5040]

52 minutes ago, DrJB said:

I tried to build this with physical parts and I can tell you this. Putting this together is much more difficult in real life than it is in LDD.

Can you show only a single layer? It seems the construction I ended up with is twice as dense ...

 

 

[DrJB]

Thank you. The various projections shown in prior posts 'suggest' that the rows (of same color) are placed at the corners of a square, when in fact those rows are both at the corners and centers of such square grid. Which is what I meant by a 'grid twice as dense'. Also, my construction is likely to be more 'monochromatic' than yours as the most parts I have are white/gray/black ... time for bricklink.

Edited April 4, 2017 by DrJB

[DrJB]

Many of the contraptions on here remind me of the various Mathematica solids ...

[aeh5040]

Is there anything along these lines that can be done with just ONE type of part, I wonder?  Bionicle parts often have many holes and protrusions in multiple directions....

[DrJB]

I'm not sure. Most lego parts have one plane of symmetry (except for worm gears). The basic 'primitive' in this discussion (the many examples shown) needs to be 'not-symmetric'.

In 2D space, it might be possible, but in 3D ... not so sure. 

[agrof]

Although it is not the smallest, I tried to improve the hexagonal structure. By using an axle pin extra in third dimension as @DrJB mentioned it is just too dense, not pleasuring to my eyes. Of course it can be done with layers without offset too.

With a bit tweak it looks much nicer, maybe comes handy as hexagon primitive:

What I am wondering about, if we can find a structure, which offers angled connections in each directions, thus looks more "random".

Edited April 6, 2017 by agrof

[Didumos69]

9 hours ago, agrof said:

And one super primitive as for the smallest?

When it comes to smallness, I think we have a winner . Although one could argue that it is not exactly the same in all dimensions. But I like it anyway.

6 hours ago, DrJB said:

Many of the contraptions on here remind me of the various Mathematica solids ...

Yea, I was already looking into space filling polyhedra to get some inspiration, especially the ones that are the same in all dimensions. For instance the truncated octahedron, to see whether @agrof's hexagon could be incorporated, but i haven't figured that out yet.

6 hours ago, aeh5040 said:

Is there anything along these lines that can be done with just ONE type of part, I wonder?  Bionicle parts often have many holes and protrusions in multiple directions....

That would be a nice quest !

Edited April 5, 2017 by Didumos69

[agrof]

Lunchtime, so some more weirdos. 

Damn, this is so addictive, and superb practice to know the parts and variability. 

Edited April 6, 2017 by agrof

[Didumos69]

6 hours ago, agrof said:

Lunchtime, so some more weirdos. 

Damn, this is so addictive, and superb practice to know the parts and variability. 

Cool! Indeed very addictive! In fact we are creating our own molecular system here, with LEGO parts being the elements, the primitives being the molecules and the generated infinite patterns being the matter.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Didumos69

[Didumos69]

12 hours ago, aeh5040 said:

Is there anything along these lines that can be done with just ONE type of part, I wonder?  Bionicle parts often have many holes and protrusions in multiple directions....

10 hours ago, DrJB said:

I'm not sure. Most lego parts have one plane of symmetry (except for worm gears). The basic 'primitive' in this discussion (the many examples shown) needs to be 'not-symmetric'.

In 2D space, it might be possible, but in 3D ... not so sure. 

Given the examples shown so far I reckon I would need a part with at least two holes and two pins to make a valid pattern with only one part. There was only one part I could think of and yes, it is possible. And indeed it uses two holes and two pins of each part: Let's call the part I use the element H, then the molecule is H6. One problem; I don't see a way to build this. I will try to make it less dense. LXF-file here.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Didumos69

[agrof]

@Didumos69 That is almost the perfect find! I covered the unused pins, and left the free electrons only to understand it better.

The first line is evident:

But this step is already head scratching...

I would say, You just made the LEGO diamond molecule: it needs one element only, and extreme high pressure for crystallogenesis.  

What about renaming the topic to LEGO Chemistry Lab?

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by agrof

[masterX244]

fiddled a bit around with the O-Frames to get something based on their geometry.

(Interior is some dirty trickery since i had no "Pinholes on the go" at hand at all to rotate the direction of some pinholes)

[agrof]

@masterX244 That is also a great idea, lot of potential to make weak or strong connections - up to 3 on each side.

I couldn't resist to make a simplified version of your idea quickly, (I sketched the minimal connections, not to make it super robust):

Edited April 6, 2017 by agrof

[masterX244]

Just now, agrof said:

@masterX244 That is also a great idea, lot of potential to make weak or strong connections - up to 3 on each side.

I couldn't resist to make a simplified version of your idea quickly, (I sketched the minimal connections, not to make it super robust):

--SNIP--

mine was just quickly fiddled together. didnt think of the long-pins at all due to the axle variant being prone to make a gordian knot. and unlike some others here i'm pretty new to the oddities of technic parts.

[Didumos69]

I just renamed this thread as it evolves into a wave of primitives and patterns that all take part of something I would like to refer to as The LEGO Molecular System, with LEGO parts being the 'elements', the primitive compounds being the 'molecules' and the generated (potentially) infinite patterns being 'matter'. Of course these LEGO molecules may represent real molecular counterparts, but they don't need to. It's The LEGO Molecular System !

Nice idea @masterX244!

3 hours ago, agrof said:

I covered the unused pins, and left the free electrons only to understand it better.

@agrof, I'm afraid you covered a few pins too many. A fully surrounded 'molecule' is connected to 6 neighbors, each with 2 pin-pinhole connections. These renders illustrate how a fully surrounded primitive (green) is embedded (LXF-file here):

Edited April 5, 2017 by Didumos69

[agrof]

Right, I blame the transparent color I have used.  Are You planning to make a kind of periodic table to collect all ideas in the first topic?

@masterX244 And You did it very well, You brought a very good one on the table! I can recommend to use LDD for brainstorming, it is like a dictionary - You will more and more familiar with the "words" (parts).

[Tommy Styrvoky]

Well as you can see it is rather easy to form any structure with benzene or cyclohexanes. So I made 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) for fun.

 

Now to see if it's possible to make a Buckyball.

I think it would be possible with this part. 

 

 

Maybe I will see about building this digitally on Friday... after my Organic chemistry exam.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Tommy Styrvoky

[DrJB]

A bucky ball (truncated icosahedron) is possible with these two parts. However, you can build it in real life (by slightly bending/forcing parts) but LDD won't let you.

 +  or, alternatively   + 

You'd need many parts. I have both built and displayed at home. I'll try to remember to take photos tonight.

There are other ways to do build the bucky ball with system (non-technic) parts

The one I find rather 'unique', is done by Hero Factory parts, and I believe an LXF file is available

 

 

[masterX244]

2 hours ago, agrof said:

Right, I blame the transparent color I have used.  Are You planning to make a kind of periodic table to collect all ideas in the first topic?

@masterX244 And You did it very well, You brought a very good one on the table! I can recommend to use LDD for brainstorming, it is like a dictionary - You will more and more familiar with the "words" (parts).

LDD allows some things that don't work out IRL, and for some reason i prefer messing around with tangible parts so a "Reality check" is included

[aeh5040]

Congratulations!  I find this one quite mind boggling...

[aeh5040]

[aeh5040]

[J_C]

This is turning into the most interesting topic on EB! Thank you for sharing. This made me to pull out old chemistry textbooks and start to read those again.

Edited April 6, 2017 by J_C

[Didumos69]

Some nice examples once again @aeh5040!

On 4-4-2017 at 10:34 PM, Victor Imaginator said:

Not a 3D, but i like the process... It can be converted to 3D, but i need axles of infinte length for this task. And i don't sure how infinite axle will fit in 'smallest possible' bounds)

@Victor Imaginator, I took your attempt and tried to make it work in all dimensions. This is how it can be done and I think this can actually be build (LXF-file here). It's also a variation on the 'single part'-pattern I posted yesterday.

And it can be made less dense by using longer axles, here's a variation with 5L axles:

Edited April 6, 2017 by Didumos69