My maths object this time is one of my dog’s favourite toys: the Nobbly Wobbly.
In the video, I said it was invented by a mathematician, but Dick Esterle’s bio normally goes “artist, architect, inventor”. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if Everyone’s a Mathematician.
It’s a particularly pleasing rubbery ball thing made of six interwoven loops in different colours, invented by Dick Esterle.
On Google+, various people told me the unexpected fact that the outer automorphism group of $S_6$ is hiding inside this dog toy.
I’ve also found this Celebration of Mind livestream starring Dick Esterle from 2013 talking about all sorts of mathematically-shaped toys, including the Nobbly Wobbly.
