π = 4? π = ∞? The Puzzle of the Schwarz Lantern

Here is more about the Schwarz lantern. The pathological behaviour it illustrates when approximating smooth curved surfaces with a triangular mesh is all too familiar to those working with automatically-generated mesh models in computer graphics and solid modeling. Interestingly, and related, the Yoshimura buckling pattern observed when a cylinder is crushed along its axis closely resembles the Schwarz lantern.

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