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Comment by justinsaccount | Hacker News Reader

> The starting point for Mac Pro, the stainless steel space frame

Only apple could manage to call a bent piece of metal pipe a "space frame".

edit: getting downvoted because a "space frame" is a real thing. However, those are very specifically designed to be a "Three-dimensional truss based on the rigidity of the triangle" and this is absolutely not that. This apple co-opting an existing term for something and applying it where it doesn't make any sense.

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Only apple could manage to call a bent piece of metal pipe a "space frame".

Or every architect and engineer in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_frame

Only Apple could get shat on for using appropriate but obscure terminology.

But is it appropriate here? from that wikipedia page:

> The simplest form of space frame is a horizontal slab of interlocking square pyramids and tetrahedra built from aluminium or tubular steel struts

Do you see anything that looks like that?

Simplest form ≠ only form.

Sure. Looking at each of the external sphere holes, each seems to be associated with a triangle of connected internal sphere holes. The central point of each sphere is therefore associated with the central points of three others in an adjacent plane.

It is easily possible to conceptualise the 'grate' of this mac-pro as a set of interlocking tetrahedra of origins of the spherical spaces, instead of interlocking tetrahedra of the joints; a little like a photo-negative.

I dislike the appearance myself, it provokes a mild feeling of trypophobia, but I don't see anything dishonest about their term.

The holes are part of the removable external housing, not the frame.

Not here, hopefully.

retina display, cinema display

I think pretentious is the right word.

So...

> In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure (3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with few interior supports. Like the truss, a space frame is strong because of the inherent rigidity of the triangle;

I don't see any triangles here.. All the examples on that wikipedia page show triangles. Does the frame they built actually count as a space frame or did they coopt the term?

Triangles aren't the only forms used to build space frames. There are lots of geometries that can be used.

Can you show me an example of one? A google image search for "space frame" shows lots of triangles, and not a single thing that consists of a curved bar.

From what pics I've seen, it looks the circles are arranged in a triangular pattern. So there are your triangles. (One of my most eye opening realizations when I was in engineering school was that just because something does not superficially look like something else, doesn't mean they're not functionally similar. My particular realization was with four bar linkages, which is another fun structure to know about.)

Also, it looks like there's at least two layers, so it very well could be a 3D structure and not just a flat panel.

So, all in all, I'd say it probably counts as a space frame, though I'm not part of the Space Frame Police, so who knows.

> Built around a stainless steel space frame, an aluminum housing lifts off

The "aluminum housing" is what contains the circle pattern.

> the housing is much more than a decorative shell. It provides rigidity to the space frame.

edit to add: Why are you trying to poke holes in Apple's use of a phrase that you've only just discovered?

Well, I thought I knew what a space frame was before. You know, those triangle based skeleton frame things.

By any definition, explanation, or example I can find the new mac pro is NOT a space frame.

Just for kicks, I too google image searched for "space frame" and while most of the images were of entirely triangle-based space frames, there were in fact some that showed constructions using curved bars. So if we're using google image search as an authority, it's now proven that space frames can have curved bars. Notably, most of the curved bars I saw were in boat- or car-related designs, if you want to see the "proof" (though I would hardly call google image searching for something to be actual proof, but since it seems to be a metric you're using, I'll go with it).

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