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]

"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.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 18 2005


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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