Abstract
Three stainless steel sculptures, designed by Dutch mathematical artist Koos Verhoeff, were installed at the new
Mathematikon building of Heidelberg University. Lobke consists of six conical segments connected into a single
convoluted strip. One side is polished, the other side is matte (blasted), to emphasize the two-sided nature of the
strip. The shape derives from an Euler cycle on the octahedron. Balancing Act is a figure-eight knot, made from 16
polished triangular beam segments, 4 longer and 12 shorter segments. As a freestanding object it balances on a single
short segment. Each beam runs parallel to one of the four main diagonals of a cube. Hamilton Cycle on Football is
a Hamilton cycle on the traditional football (soccer ball), constructed from 60 matte square beams. Mathematicians
know the traditional football as a truncated icosahedron, consisting of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, giving rise to
60 vertices.
