Meaning of Synergy | English | Whole is more than the parts
Channel: Arvind Gupta
Date: 2014-10-16

Bucky Fuller was an iconic designer. In the 1950s he designed the Geodesic Dome and predicted that it was the lightest structure for its weight. In the 1970s when the Electron Microscope was invented, scientists discovered that the structure of the protein virus was indeed a geodesic!

Bucky was also the first person to coin the word SYNERGY and popularize it. He was very fond of India and visited the country often. In the late seventies he met the late Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi. He tried to convey the meaning of Synergy to her, but she did not get it. So Bucky pulled out three equilateral triangles from his bag. He assembled all three to make a tepee - a tetrahedron. He asked the Prime Minister "How many triangles do you see?" and she replied "FOUR". Indeed the 3 triangles when arranged to stand up create a fourth triangle at the base. So, Synergy really meant that the WHOLE was more than the sum of the parts!!

The tetrahedron is a basic building block. Many of the chemical bonds are tetrahedronal. Here you see the molecular structure of methane CH4 made from matchsticks and cycle valve tubes. The 4 marbles represent the Hydrogen atoms and the red bead in the center represents the Carbon. This work was supported by IUCAA and Tata Trust. This film was made by Ashok Rupner TATA Trust: Education is one of the key focus areas for Tata Trusts, aiming towards enabling access of quality education to the underprivileged population in India. To facilitate quality in teaching and learning of Science education through workshops, capacity building and resource creation, Tata Trusts have been supporting Muktangan Vigyan Shodhika (MVS), IUCAA's Children’s Science Centre, since inception. To know more about other initiatives of Tata Trusts, please visit www.tatatrusts.org