The Sierpinski Tetrahedron: A Metal Sculpture

What does it mean...

The metal sculpture was constructed out of 4,096 equilateral triangles. Four of these metal triangles were welded together to form 1,024 triangular based pyramids called tetrahedra. Each triangle is 3.14 inches tall. Waclaw Sierpinski, a Polish mathematician, described the fractal in 1915 for whom the design is named after. Fractals, a self-repeating image, are mathematical models generated by complex equations in a branch of mathematics called Chaos Theory. Chaos is described to be predictable randomness. It can be used to make weather predictions, climate change, migrating bird patterns or predict the path of a forest fire. The Sierpinski Tetrahedron is a 3-dimensional model of the Sierpinski Triangle Gasket. The Sierpinski Triangle is an interesting 2-dimensional figure that can be constructed by sub-dividing each equilateral triangle.