posted
There's an advertisement in my local paper for a table that seems impossible to me. It starts out as a perfectly round table, and ends up as a slightly larger perfectly round table. Radial Expansion Table by Oscar de la Renta The picture is toward the bottom on the right. I can't seem to find a better picture, and the one in my paper is black and white so it doesn't show up very well, but this seems impossible to me. Can anyone explain to me why this would or wouldn't work?
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Well, there is a series of pictures that shows you how it works. Click on the small picture in your link, and expand it. There are eight leaves that are added all around, and they are shaped such that they fill in the gaps between the original small pie-slice shaped pieces when you expand them out. Looks reasonable to me. I guess you store the extra leaves in the closet when they aren't in use.
[ February 21, 2004, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: ak ]
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It looks like the filler leaves are chisel shaped, so between the permanent leaves they're straight, and it only narrows down inside the ring, if that made any sense at all.
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You mean because the outer edge would be either too curved when it was expanded or else not curved enough when it's contracted?
It looks like it's not a perfect circle when it's expanded. The little pencil-shaped insert leaves are almost flat across the back (the eraser ends, if you like). When it's contracted it may be slightly octagonal, too. I think were I designing this I would pick a curvature that was a compromise.
[ February 21, 2004, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: ak ]
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It's like a snowflake, only the pieces you've cut out of it are the original table. The part you normally keep of a snowflake are the leaves that you add back in. So are they eight leaves to add or one big wood snowflake, or maybe 2 or 4 pieces?
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If you look at the big picture (where you can see the edge of the table in its contracted configuration) in the expanded view, you can see that the rounded edge is somewhat flattened. In other words, the radius of the curve at the edge of the pie-slice shaped pieces fits a larger circle.
They probably photoshopped it a bit more circular than it really is for that little top view on the bottom left. It looks like it would be a little more octagonal looking than that.
[ February 21, 2004, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: ak ]
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Midnight Blue, does it make sense now? Did we understand what you were asking? This was a neat question. The answer was not obvious at first glance. I think I'll show this to my brother who makes furniture. I wonder if he's ever seen anything like this.
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Sort of. All the places that are advertising it fail to mention that it either isn't an exact circle when it's bigger, or it isn't when it's smaller. My mom said it could be an exact circle both times, and I didn't see how that could be true. But I think I have my answer. Thank you.
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