To: atm{at}shore.net, tkrajci{at}san.osd.mil, amul49{at}eth.net
From: tkrajci{at}san.osd.mil
Reply-To: tkrajci{at}san.osd.mil


>From: "Aditya Munshi" 
>
>I am ready to start making my mirror cell but I still have no idea, what
>one means by say, a 6-point cell or a 4-point cell....

If you are confused by the concept of mirror cells...look at a windshield
wiper on a car.  It uses a series of pivots and bars to divide the pressure
into smaller and smaller segments (over more and more points) so that the
wiper blade is supported equally at all points as it moves along the
windshield.

The windshield wiper blade is a one-dimensional example of a support that
uses pivots and bars to distribute the balancing force equally to all
points.  No matter how the surface of the windshield changes...a small
amount or a large amount...the system of pivots and bars will provide equal
force to each point...which is what we want for a wiper blade.

For mirrors we need a two-dimensional support layout.  You can use beams to
change the number of support points by a factor of two at each level...or
you can use triangles to change the number of support points by a factor of
three at each level.

See:
http://overton.tamu.edu/aset/krajci/
specifically:
http://overton.tamu.edu/aset/krajci/cell-12-pt/cell-12-pt.htm

Please let me know what parts of this explanation, or my website is unclear to you.

I hope this helps.

Tom Krajci
Tashkent, Uzbekistan

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