An Expansion of the Rhombicosidodecahedron

An expansion of the RID with 122 faces 30 rhombi 60 almostsquares 12 pentagons and twenty triangles

This expanded version of the rhombicosidodecahedron has, as faces, 30 rhombi, 60 almost-square trapezoids, twelve regular pentagons, and twenty equilateral triangles, for a total of 122 faces. I made it using Stella 4d, software you may try for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

I call this an “expansion of the rhombicosidodecahedron” because it is similar in appearance to that Archimedean solid. However, it is formed by augmenting the thirty faces of a rhombic triacontahedron with prisms, taking the convex hull of the result, and then using Stella‘s “try to make faces regular” function on that convex hull.

An Expanded Version of the Snub Cube

prism-expanded snub cube convex hull after TTMFR

To make this polyhedron, I started with a snub cube. Next, I augmented all triangular faces of it with prisms, then took the convex hull of the result. Finally, I used Stella 4d‘s “try to make faces regular” function on the convex hull.

Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator has a free trial download available here.

A Twisted Expansion of the Truncated Octahedron

twisted truncated octahedron reflection one

I made this variant of the truncated octahedron using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator. You may try this program for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

An Expanded Snub Dodecahedron

To make this polyhedron, I started with a snub dodecahedron. Next, I augmented all triangular faces of it with prisms, then took the convex hull of the result. Finally, I used Stella 4d‘s “try to make faces regular” function on the convex hull.

An expanded snub dodecahedron

If you’d like to try the trial version of Stella for yourself, the website to visit is http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

A Polyhedral Journey, Beginning With an Expansion of the Rhombic Triacontahedron

The blue figure below is the rhombic triacontahedron. It has thirty identical faces, and is one of the Catalan solids, also known as Archimedean duals. This particular Catalan solid’s dual is the icosidodecahedron.

Rhombic Triaconta

I use a program called Stella 4d (available here) to transform polyhedra, and the next step here was to augment each face of this polyhedron with a prism, keeping all edge lengths the same.

Rhombic Triaconta augmented

After that, I created the convex hull of this prism-augmented rhombic triacontahedron, which is the smallest convex figure which can enclose a given polyhedron.

Convex hull

Another ability of Stella is the “try to make faces regular” function. Throwing this function at this four-color polyhedron above produced the altered version below, in which edge lengths are brought as close together as possible. It isn’t possible to do this perfectly, though, and that is most easily seen in the yellow faces. While close to being squares, they are actually trapedoids.

ch after ttmfr

For the next transformation, I looked at the dual of this polyhedron. If I had to name it, I would call it the trikaipentakis icosidodecahedron. It has two face types: sixty of the larger kites, and sixty of the smaller ones, also.

ch after ttmfr dual

Next, I used prisms, again, to augment each face. The height used for these prisms is the length of the edges where orange kites meet purple kites.

aug ch after ttmfr dual

Lastly, I made the convex hull of the polyhedron above. This convex hull appears below.

Convex hull again

 

Two Different Versions of an Expanded Snub Dodecahedron, Both of Which Feature Regular Decagons

The snub dodecahedron, one of the Archimedean solids, can be expanded in multiple ways, two of which are shown below. In each of these expanded versions, regular decagons replace each of the twelve regular pentagons of a snub dodecahedron.

exp sn dodeca 2

Exp Sn Dodaca

Like the snub dodecahedron itself, both of these polyhedra are chiral, and any chiral polyhedron can be used to create a compound of itself and its own mirror-image, Below, you’ll find these enantiomorphic-pair compounds, each made from one of the two polyhedra above, together with its own reflection.

exp sn dodeca 2 compound of enantiomophic pair

exp sn dodaca Compound of enantiomorphic pair exp snub dodeca

All four of these images were created using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, software available (including a free trial download) at this website.