To celebrate the upcoming 60th anniversary of Lego in Jan 2018, Lego are launching an ultra special .1 Degree Lego set.

It's called .1 Degree Lego on account of many of its bricks having a .1 Degree deformation that enables them to be assembled into a very tall tapering tetrahedron tower with perfectly smooth but gradually sloping sides. Each Lego brick has a number stamped on its underside as, although to the naked eye they are indistinguishable, there are several different types that must be used to create the structure properly.

There are inner bricks and outer bricks. The "inners" have no deformation of angles. The "outers" have the .1 degree of inward slope, but some have this feature on two faces to enable corners to be formed.

Checking the underside code on the bricks against the information provided by a detailed diagram will show where the different brick types should be used in order to create the perfectly smooth sided tapering obelisk.

When not being used to build the prescribed structure, the deviations from perfection of the bricks are subtle enough to be virtually unnoticeable as other simple Lego houses etc are being generated.

(those inclined to make mathematical calculations can work out the exact degree of angular deviation required to facilitate the building of a ten foot obelisk style tower using bricks that otherwise function perfectly normally for other lower level structures)
-- xenzag, Jan 24 2018

Relevant http://www.brickbending.com
Art from stressing bricks into circles and such [RayfordSteele, Jan 24 2018]

Very handy... https://www.flexo.nz
Flexible joints using silicon rubber. [RayfordSteele, Jan 24 2018]

I am reasonably sure that the slope (relative to the vertical) of most obelisks is more than 0.1°.

If all you want is a 0.1° slope, you can get that by building a very tall obelisk out of regular lego, so as to achieve a bottom-to-top temperature gradient.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 24 2018


Ha.... I was working on it being about ten feet high, with a very slight, but noticeable tapering inwards - i.e. an elongated, vertiically orientated tetrahedron. You're good at sums Max. You could work it out for me. It doesn't need tensor calculus.
-- xenzag, Jan 25 2018


Sp. Prescribed.

A proscribed structure would be forbidden.
-- pertinax, Jan 25 2018


Of course.... Pesky iPad corrective text...... Thanks - fixed.
-- xenzag, Jan 25 2018


A .1 degree taper over 10 feet would give a deviation of about 5mm, or 10mm if it's tapering on both sides.

While I like the idea, it isn't going to work as described. The obelisk gets thinner as it goes to the top, so the pieces near the top will have to be smaller overall, as well as being tapered. So each brick will need to be labelled as to which layer it goes in, as well which sides are sloped. And the ones for the higher layers would be noticeably different lego. Perhaps you could make the walls of the obelisk out of normal lego, and just have corner pieces that hold those walls at an angle.
-- mitxela, Jan 25 2018


Whilst I follow your logic, I'm not so sure you're correct in assuming the bricks at the top will need to be that different. We are talking obelisk here and not pyramid. Obviously if it is topped off with a pyramid then that would require different pieces. I might ask Lego and see what their engineers say.

Meanwhile I'm sort of obsessed with dual functionality, with a repeat module like a Lego brick being simultaneously totally generic but also specifically highly specialised.
-- xenzag, Jan 25 2018


Only the outermost layer of bricks needs to get thinner, until it meets the next innermost layer, at which point the whole thing gets one layer smaller, and the pattern of slowly shrinking bricks repeats itself.

Until you get close to the top, that is, at which point things will need to be done differently.
-- Wrongfellow, Jan 25 2018


I fully recognised from the outset that some of bricks would need to have slightly different geometries. I want this to be so subtle as to only become apparent over a large area. That's the essence of the idea. It's a bit like a table top. They may be perfectly flat, but if you butt enough of them end to end, their perfect flat top surfaces will nevertheless eventually describe the curve of the earth.
-- xenzag, Jan 25 2018


Yes, but once you've built your "very tall tapering tetrahedron tower" how do you construct the Eye of Sauron at the top? Or is that another set you have to buy separately?
-- hippo, Jan 26 2018


I would still like to see a stud on the 0.1° face to allow a wider set of possible imagineered options.
-- wjt, Jan 28 2018



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