A piece of art which always returns to its stable point
A ceremony was recently held to celebrate the donation of a gömböc. The artwork, which is about the size of an adult’s hand, is now on display in Kårhuset.
– Published 10 April 2025
A gömböc is a so-called mono-monostatic body: It always returns to its stable point. An animal in nature whose properties and shape have striking similarities to a gömböc is the star tortoise.
LTH’s gömböc model is G1666, with a nod to the founding of Lund University. As other gömböc art figures that have been received by universities around the world it has been donated with the support of the Hungarian financier Ottó Albrecht.
– We are delighted with the artwork that reminds us of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier, says Margaret McNamee, Deputy Dean of LTH, who attended the ceremony, as did the Hungarian Ambassador Adrian Müller.
The existence of the Gömböc was postulated in 1995 by mathematician Vladimir Arnold. The shape was constructed by two mathematicians from the Budapest University of Technology, Péter Várkonyi and Gábor Domokos, who are both behind the donation to LTH.