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Mathematicians get a handle on centuries old shape It has been almost 230 years since French general and mathematician Jean Meusnier's study of soap films - the same kind used by children today to blow bubbles -- led to one of the fundamental mathematical examples in geometric optimization. Meusnier showed that one of nature's simplest geometric figures - an ordinary two-dimensional plane -- could be twisted infinitely into a helicoid, a shape that has the delicate balance everywhere of a soap film.
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