The basic lego ia constructed of simple ABS plastic and can come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.
And yes, there is their madness. In case you were wondering, their is such a thing as a 'fundamental lego unit'. The fundamental lego unit (FLU) is defined as the width of one brick. In standard measurement units, 1 FLU = 5/16in = 8mm. The picture below (stolen from Building LEGO Structures) best illustrates lego dimensioning.
Some of you may think this is a little over kill, and you are right. But this information is actually important to people using Legos as a design tool. Dimensioning is key when building Lego structures, such as robots. Lego robots usually contain a motor (if they plan on going anywhere) that requires proper restraining to prevent the thing from falling apart when you turn it on. The FLU becomes essential when planning out gear ratios (don't worry, gears will be discussed at a later time).
I don't think this is overkill--it's fascinating. Makes me see a simple toy/tool in a new light. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteFLUs! That's awesome. Legos deserve their own unit of length.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you discovered this when we were doing our machine design lab. It sucks to have to measure out the bricks. You can tell engineers designed these things. Who else would create a unit of measurement for a toy?
ReplyDeleteYou think these dimensions don't matter, until you build your machine and it falls apart, and that just makes robotics lab take longer.
ReplyDelete