Cluster of Twenty Snub Dodecahedra

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Cluster of Twenty Snub Dodecahedra

This was made by the augmentation of an icosahedron, using snub dodecahedra on each of its twenty faces. I used software available at http://www.software3d.com/stella.php.

A Space-Filling Pair of Polyhedra: The Cuboctahedron and the Octahedron

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A Space-Filling Pair of Polyhedra:  The Cuboctahedron and the Octahedron

There are only a few polyhedra which can fill space without leaving gaps, without “help” from a second polyhedron. This filling of space is the three-dimensional version of tessellating a plane. Among those that can do this are the cube, the truncated octahedron, and the rhombic dodecahedron.

If multiple polyhedra are allowed in a space-filling pattern, this opens new possibilities. Here is one: the filling of space by cuboctahedra and octahedra. There are others, and they are likely to appear as future blog-posts here.

Software credit: I made this virtual model using Stella 4d, polyhedral-manipulation software you can buy, or try as a free trial download, at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.