Mathematics for the Masses

With the pull of your fingers, a set of clacking joints and colorful plastic rods transform from a collapsed star into an expansive sphere.

You probably played with one as a child, or saw it in classrooms, maybe even in a therapist's office, without realizing it had a name.

It's called the Hoberman Sphere and it's an example of transformative design. Rather than existing in a static state, the Hoberman Sphere can easily transform with a simple press or pull.

When pressed upon, the sphere becomes star-like — symmetrical with edges and points caving in around a center point.

Pull and let it breathe, and the bunch of plastic rods open, transforming into a new shape and expanding to its largest size.

Invented by artist, engineer and tinkerer Chuck Hoberman, the object is the physical realization of geometric principles.

The Hoberman Sphere is actually an approximation of a sphere. 60 edges identical in length meet at 30 different points. The edges comprise 20 triangular and 12 pentagonal faces.

The official shape of the Hoberman Sphere is an icosidodecahedron.

The object's transformation hinges on its scissor-like joints: two rods pinned together at the center that allow a press or pull to fold or expand the object.

Primarily inspired by the mechanics underlying the movement and transformation of physical objects, Hoberman never intended to make toys.

Hoberman received a patent for the Sphere in 1990, when it was introduced to the public as a model kit of sorts and pieces had to be snapped together.

It wasn’t until 1995 when the public received the object pre-assembled that the object took off in popularity as a toy, according to the New Yorker.

Enjoyed by children and adults alike, nearly five million Hoberman Spheres were sold from 1995 to 2003.

Former president Bill Clinton was photographed playing with the sphere in 1998, and former president Barack Obama in 2014.

The Hoberman sphere has been described as toy as much as it’s been described as a Platonic form of a plaything, “toys reduced to their purest elements of movement, form and mathematics.”

That’s the captivating thing about the Hoberman: all of its mechanics are visible to the human eye, and its transformative powered can be triggered by the force of a child's fingers. Its math that can be played with and understood by the masses.

Today, the Hoberman sphere can be found in therapy offices and at schools — where's it's coined the "breathing ball" — guiding the breath of both children and adults.

“Use the ball to show how tense you’re feeling right now,” is something a therapist might say to a patient at the start of a fraught session. “Now, take a breath as you expand the ball slowly.”

The ease with which the Sphere can expand or contract to a fraction of its largest size, as well as remain static in any state in between the extremes, helps individuals to externalize their emotions.

The Hoberman Sphere is used as a breathing ball in mindfulness programs gaining traction across the country.