Crocheted Hyperbolic Models

The Institute For Figuring started a collective project to crochet a coral reef, calling it “a wooly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world.” Here is a gallery of these beautiful handmade creations. Also see the Hyperbolic Cactus Garden.

“Until the nineteenth century, mathematicians knew about only two kinds of geometry: the Euclidean plane and the sphere. It was a deep shock to their community to find that there existed a completely other spatial structure, one whose existence was only discerned by overturning a two-thousand-year-old prejudice about “parallel” lines. The discovery of hyperbolic space in the 1820’s and 1830’s marked a turning point in mathematics and initiated the formal study of non-Euclidean geometry. Almost two centuries later, Daina Taimina a mathematician at Cornell University made a physical model of the hyperbolic plane – a feat many mathematicians had believed was impossible – using crochet. With hook and yarn the properties of this unique space become manifest to our eyes and hands, enabling tactile exploration of a structure once thought impossible.” – IFF

More on hyperbolic geometry:Wikipedia