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Fractal Cup

 recursive faux china
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Take a large cup sans handle. Twist-lock a similar but smaller cup to its side. Connect an even smaller cup to the smaller cup. Continue ad infinitum. The cup’s slanted sides cause the cup chain to build a fractal spiral that functions as a handle for the largest cup being used.

Choose a foremost cup for a grande latte or piccolo espresso, or use them as measuring cups, curled together in the drawer. Buy one a day and spend the rest of your life collecting the whole series.

—FarmerJohn, Apr 18 2005

sketch http://www.geocitie...ie/fractalcup.html?
[FarmerJohn, Apr 18 2005]

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       "On the fiftieth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, a cup 12 microns across." </sings>
—moomintroll, Apr 18 2005
   

       Would this take an infinite amount of material, or not? I don't remember...
—RayfordSteele, Apr 18 2005
   

       You can collect the whole Mandelbrot set.   

       Eventually, you'd get a cup made of about 7 atoms. (a 3x3 atom cube with the center and on top-middle atoms removed)
—DesertFox, Apr 18 2005
   

       [desertfox] surely that's a 25 atom cup?
—jonthegeologist, Apr 18 2005
   

       Nah, you can get down to four. Arranged in a pyramid, there'd be a tiny... oh, wait - does it count if the space is too small to hold an atom?
—moomintroll, Apr 18 2005
   

       agreed [moomintroll], [desertfox] and I were thinking of a cubic system.   

       The space would have to be small enough for a drink, after all, what's the point of a cup if it's not a recepticle for fluids. So, it has to be large enough for a molecule (or atom) of a potable fluid. I reckon that'll be a single water molecule.   

       I don't know if your 4 atom arrangement would work - which element are you suggesting?
—jonthegeologist, Apr 18 2005
   

       Perhaps a monomolecular fullerene mug composed of an oxy-terminated half-buckyball?
—Freefall, Apr 18 2005
   

       This is the best idea ever.
—JesusHChrist, Apr 20 2005
   

       Hah, good point [jon] - if we make the pyramid of very big molecules, then... erm... can't be bothered to do the geometry, frankly. How big is a gold atom?
—moomintroll, Apr 20 2005
   


 

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