Zometool Project Series: the world’s most powerful Includes detailed instructions START HERE! (and fun!) modeling system. Kids, educators, and by Dr. Steve Yoshinaga WHAT IS A BUCKYBALL? Nobel-prize winning scientists all love Zometool: • it’s unique, brilliant, beautiful A buckyball is a spheri- made of carbon atoms, and 90 edges, the discovered buckyballs, but his name lives • all kits are compatible— more parts, more power! cal molecule made bonds between the carbons. on: a whole class of molecules related to • guaranteed for life! entirely of carbon buckyballs are now called fullerenes. “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes atoms — the roundest and (some say) most Fullerenes beautiful of all known BUCKYBALLS! Hailed as a breakthrough, molecules. Scientists believe it may be buckyballs have exciting uses in every- thing from medical research to optics, one of the most useful, too. Slicing 12 “points” truncates the icosahedron metallurgy, electronics and energy. Find out how they stimulate human It’s for kicks A buckyball has much more in common research and imagination: with a soccer ball than just looks. It spins, • Molecule of the Year in 1991! bounces against hard surfaces, and when • Lighter than plastic; stronger than steel! squeezed and released, springs back to its • How will this beautiful molecule original shape. Buckyballs are so strong, change your future? they’ve survived 15,000 mph collisions! After the C601 buckyball was discovered in Have a ball with this Wild Science 1985, scientists found more fullerenes. Discovery! Why bucky? Made entirely of carbon, they form spheres (buckyballs), ellipsoids (C70) or tubes Buckyballs were named (buckytubes, or nanotubes2), and have MADE IN USA US Patents RE after the visionary design from kid-safe materials 33,785; 6,840,699 chemical properties more similar to graphite B2. Zometool is a scientist R. Buckminister registered trademark (pencil lead) than diamond — both of which of Zometool Inc. Although there are many sizes, the most Fuller, because they resem- Based on the 31-zone are also different forms of pure carbon! system, discovered common buckyball consists of 60 carbon ble the geodesic domes by Steve Baer, Zomeworks Corp., atoms (C60). Like a soccer ball (a trun- he popularized, like the USA © 2010 1 Prof. Eiji Osawa of Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan, cated icosahedron), it’s made of 32 “flat” Biosphere in Montreal. Fuller died in 1983, theorized soccer ball-shaped C60 in Chemistry, vol. 25, 1970 shapes (polygons): 20 hexagons and 12 two years before Harold Kroto, Richard 2 Electron micrographs of tubular carbon filaments were WARNING: published in 1952 by Radushkevich and Lukyanovich in the O-3 ! pentagons. It has 60 corners (vertices) Smalley, Robert Curl and colleagues Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry. Choking Hazard 888.966.3386 SMALL PARTS. NOT for children under 3 years. 1 How it’s put together Just as you could use the same Zometool Primordial buckyballs zap carbon using lasers or electricity in an How close are we? A FULLER VISION parts to build different models that are all-helium atmosphere, causing the free As a 5-year old, R. Buckminster Allotropes are different forms of the same strong or weak, the different structures of atoms to form rings of buckyballs and Uses for the buckyball are being explored Fuller found “the triangle held it’s shape when nothing else did,”3 element, due to chemical bonding (Greek: diamond and graphite cause one to be nanotubes. all around the world. Scientists in govern- using toothpicks and peas4 in kin- allos “variation” + tropos “manner or form”). hard and the other soft. It’s not what it’s ment and industry are characterizing its Drs. Kroto, Smalley and Curl made bucky- dergarten. His love affair with the Diamond and graphite are two of the most made of, it’s how it’s put together. dynamic properties and safety profile. triangle led to inventions like the balls while trying to understand carbon geodesic dome and oct-tet truss. well-known allotropes of carbon. Beyond peppering soot, buckyballs may ALLOTROPES OF CARBON molecule formation around red giant soon be a household item — in cosmetics, Obsessed with efficiency, form and functionality, In a diamond, each carbon atom is bond- stars. There’s no air in outer space, so to Fuller adopted a “more for less” philosophy. cleaning products, medicine and more. 5 ed to four neighboring carbons by single simulate those conditions, they created an Waldo Warren derived the By learning about buckyballs today, you word dymaxion from the bonds in a tetrahedral formation (right). ideal environment for making buckyballs. might find a cure for cancer tomorrow! terms dynamic, maximum and This structure creates a strong 3-D Like many scientific advances, buckyballs tension to christen Fuller’s Another carbon allotrope is amorphous molecular lattice: diamond is the hardest were discovered by accident! LANGUAGE OF THE BUCKY-VERSE inventions, like the Dymaxion (Greek: “without-form”). Unlike crystal- Car, Dymaxion House and naturally occurring substance on earth. Allotrope – one of several forms of the same element Dymaxion Map. line graphite or diamond, candle soot is Buckybabies – Buckyballs with fewer than 60 carbon atoms Like diamond, mostly amorphous carbon, but some of it Revolution in progress Buckybowl – half of a buckyball The 4th dimension — Fuller was the original “out of Buckyeggs – when two pentagons next to each other in a buckyball graphite is pure the box” (or “into the dome”) thinker. He visualized forms buckyballs. Not just strange round Buckyballs have tremendous potential as form a pointy end, causing it to look like an egg physical form in x, y, and z, but also function over time. carbon, but its form molecules dreamed up by mad scientists, Buckytube, or nanotube – fullerene tube with buckyball-domed ends His 4D designs maximized utility, with minimum stress a building block in the nanoworld: – most common buckyball, 60 carbons shaped like a soccer ball C60 on “spaceship earth:” Fuller knew and properties are buckyballs have been around for billions Dopeyballs – made by replacing one or two C60 carbon atoms with • squashed buckyballs, 2x as hard as dia- that we must respect our planet. completely differ- of years — at least since the first forest fire. metal atoms. Potassium “doped” buckyballs are superconductors. mond, may be used in commercial drilling Others may function as catalysts. Dopeyballs can be used as scaffolds Born in 1895, Bucky’s fresh ideas ent. The atoms arrange like hexagonal to make designer buckyballs. Insomnia? Try Sleepyballs. Still can’t get to sleep? Call Grumpyballs. You get the idea! challenge us to build a better bathroom tiles, in sheets, one atom thick! • superconducting potassium–doped bucky- Oops, I made a buckyball Fullerene – molecule of pure carbon formed as sphere, ellipsoid, or tube world Within each sheet, carbons are tightly balls could be used in nano-electronics Fuzzyballs – buckyballs with atoms covalently attached to the carbons, in 21st creating a “fuzz” outside. Fluorinated fuzzyballs (C60/F60) may act as bonded, but between sheets only loosely A few buckyballs form when century. • buckyballs filled with taxol and attached a superlubricant. Visit the Buckminster a candle burns, but under Giant Fullerenes – Buckyballs with more than 60 carbon atoms attracted. So graphene sheets slide over Buckyballs are another allotrope of to antibodies may act as anti-cancer drugs Fuller Institute at www.bfi.org experimental conditions, sci- Graphene – single layer of carbon atoms bonded in a hexagonal tiling for more information. each other, making graphite useful for carbon. They are much more related to Polygon – closed, 2D shape of line segments joined end-to-end 3 things like lubrication, and writing: pencil graphite than diamonds, since buckyballs entists make larger amounts, Buckyballs offer a tool to enter the nano- Structure – systematic arrangement of parts or components in a Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out substance, body, or whole Loud, video recording, New York: by vaporizing carbon. Since Zeitgeist Films,1996. “lead” is really carbon. Use a pencil, and and buckytubes are essentially sheets of world, because they can act as scaf- Truncated icosahedron – 3D shape with 20 hexagonal and 12 4 you’re spreading chunks of graphite on graphene folded or wrapped into different oxygen and nitrogen inhibit folds or carriers of chemicals with unique pentagonal faces, made by slicing the “points” off an icosahedron A Fröbel “gift,” precursor of Zometool. Vertices – corners, where 2 lines (in 2D) or 3(+) faces (in 3D) meet 5 Advertising expert Warren also coined the term “radio” cellulose (paper). 3D shapes. buckyball formation, they properties. 2 3 6 2 4 1 3 5 Bucky Steps How to Make Shadows 1. Place a blue, yellow or red strut* in any hole. 2. Point the strut at the sun. 3. Cast shadow on a white board at 90º to sun’s rays. Shadows Flat 2-fold Cell 3-fold Cell Skinny 5-fold Cell Fat 5-fold Cell 4D Buckyball 4D Buckyball Shadow 1. If it works, it works perfectly. 2. Don’t break it 3. Don’t crush models. Zometool Buckyball kit — Dr. Steve Yoshinaga, copywriting; Dr. Scott apart; take it apart! Vorthmann, vZome software for images; Anni Wildung, graphic Our mission: design; Bucky snapshots courtesy of R. B. Fuller & R. Marks, The • make learning fun Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller, Southern Illinois University Press, 1960, and Wichita State University Libraries’ Department of • create value Special Collections Paul Hildebrandt, copywriting and project Rules • build a better world management. Contact [email protected]. Based on the 31-zone system discovered by Steve Baer, Zomeworks Corp., USA. © 2010 Related Projects.