Uploaded April 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The reason the cuboctahedra in the chain don't stick to each other is that the magnetism in the triangles and squares is directed in straight lines. As the poles of the magnets connect directly to each other, the magnetic force directed outward in these lines is weak. Besides that, lines from bordering cuboctahedra touch at a rather large angle, causing even less attraction. Thus, the magnetism inside each cuboctahedron by far outweighs the magnetism between two bordering ones, enabling free mechanical movement between them.
Tutorial: youtube.com/watch?v=a2F-8IBIDug
Just for fun I added a few pictures of a running man chased by a chain of 7 cuboctahedra and a partial cuboctahedron, resembling a man being chased by a graboid in the movie Tremors.
On Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graboid
The reason the cuboctahedra in the chain don't stick to each other is that the magnetism in the triangles and squares is directed in straight lines. As the poles of the magnets connect directly to each other, the magnetic force directed outward in these lines is weak. Besides that, lines from bordering cuboctahedra touch at a rather large angle, causing even less attraction. Thus, the magnetism inside each cuboctahedron by far outweighs the magnetism between two bordering ones, enabling free mechanical movement between them.
Tutorial: youtube.com/watch?v=a2F-8IBIDug
Just for fun I added a few pictures of a running man chased by a chain of 7 cuboctahedra and a partial cuboctahedron, resembling a man being chased by a graboid in the movie Tremors.
On Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graboid
