The version of the final stellation of the compound of five cubes shown above has its colors derived from the traditional five-color version of the original compound, itself. The one below, by contrast, has its colors selected by face-type, without regard for the original compound.
Both of these virtual models were created with Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, software available at this website. Also, for more about this particular polyhedron, please see the next post.
Ordinarily, with Zometools, the compound of five cubes is an all-blue model. However, I wanted to build one in which each cube is a different color, so I made a special request to the Zometool Corporation (their website: http://www.zometool.com) for some off-color parts, to make this possible.
The five colors used in this model are standard blue, a darker shade of blue, red, yellow, and black.
I also received the struts needed to build this model in white, so I will be making a second version of this soon. I didn’t want the Zomeballs used to match any strut color, though, so I will have to wait for the shipment of purple Zomeballs I ordered, today, to arrive, before I can build that model.
Zome is a fantastic tool to use for mathematical investigations, as well as education, and other applications as well. I recommend this product highly, and without reservation.
The most common depiction of the compound of five cubes uses solid cubes, each of a different color:
This isn’t the only way to display this compound, though. If the faces of the cubes are hidden, then the interior structure of the compound can be seen. An edges-only depiction, still keeping a separate color for each cube, looks like this:
If these thin edges are then thickened into cylinders, that makes a third way to depict this polyhedral compound. It creates a minor problem, though: edges-as-cylinders looks awful without vertices shown as well, and the best way I have found to depict vertices, in this situation, is with spheres. With vertices shown as spheres, however, a sixth color, only for the vertex-spheres, is needed. Why? Because each vertex is shared by six edges: three from a cube of one color, and three from a second cube, of a different color.
Finally, here are all three versions, side-by-side for comparison, and with the motion stopped.
All images in this post were created using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, software you may try for free at this website.
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