Business Card Cubes

In answer to the question "what can I do with old business cards," artist and blogger Ned Batchelder has arrived at a most constructive response: "make cubes out of them."

It turns out that with six business cards, five minutes, and some significant dexterity, you can actually make something satisfactorily cube-like. You can also attach two cubes together, to which you can attach yet more cubes. And, should you manage to collect 66,048 business cards (you might need to make this a staff project), you can make a Depth 3 Menger's Sponge. Batchelder explains: "The depth 0 sponge is a single business card cube. When made from standard American business cards, it measures 2" x 2" x 2". The depth 1 sponge measures 6" x 6" x 6", the depth 2 sponge measures 18" x 18" x 18", and the depth 3 sponge measures 54" x 54" x 54", or 4.5 feet or 1.37 meters on a side... By the way, a level 4 sponge would require almost a million cards and weigh over a ton. I do not believe it could support its own weight. So level 3 is the biggest sponge we can hope to build."

Bless you, Ned Batchelder. Your playfulness and passion for the non-essential makes the world a better place.