Polyhedral Quilt Pattern

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Polyhedral Quilt Pattern II

I made this using Stella 4d, which you may try for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

A Rotating Great Rhombicosidodecahedron, with Spinning Mandalas On Its Faces

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A Rotating Great Rhombicosidodecahedron, with Spinning Mandalas On Its Faces

This polyhedron is also known as the truncated icosidodecahedron. However, I prefer the name which appears in the title of this post.

I made the image which appears on each face with Geometer’s Sketchpad and MS-Paint, and then used Stella 4d to project this image onto each face of this polyhedron, and create this rotating .gif image.

If you’d like to try Stella 4d for free, just visit this site: http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php. To my knowledge, a free trial download is only available for Stella 4d, but not for the other programs mentioned above.

You Must Obey the Speed Limit

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You Must Obey the Speed Limit

Only Nine School Days Left This Year

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Only Nine School Days Left This Year

Due to an unusual amount of Winter weather this school year, the school year where I teach has been extended to June 6, creating what many are calling “the school year that will not end.” It will end, of course, but the already-long wait for Summer vacation is getting to many of us — students, parents, teachers, and administrators alike.

The countdown is now at nine school days left: four next week, and five the week after that. In honor of this point in the countdown, I created this image based on the number nine, using Geometer’s Sketchpad and MS-Paint.

Stained-Glass Polyhedron

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Stained-Glass Polyhedron

Created using Stella 4d, software available at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

Cuboctahedron with Mandalas

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Cuboctahedron with Mandalas

The images on the faces of this polyhedron may be seen in still black and white in the previous post. I used Geometer’s Sketchpad and MS-Paint to make the flat image, and then Stella 4d to put it all together. You may try Stella for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

A Snowflake Made of Circles

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A Snowflake Made of Circles

20-Thex: A Four-Dimensional Polytope

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The 20-Thex:  A Four-Dimensional Polytope

In hyperspace, or four-space, there are six regular polychora, analogous to the Platonic Solids in three-space. Beyond the Platonics in the study of polyhedra comes, of course, the Archimedean Solids, which include many truncated forms of Platonic polyhedra.

In hyperspace, there are varieties of progressively-less regular polychora, also, and one of these, in a group called the truncates, is called 20-thex, or simply the “thex.” (Those are short names for this polychoron; it’s also called the truncated hexadecachoron, or truncated 16-cell.) What you see above is a (seemingly) three-dimensional projection of a thex, as it rotates in hyperspace.

Just as polyhedra have polygons as faces, polychora have polyhedra as unit cells. This is the net for the thex. As you can see, the thex is composed of both truncated tetrahedra and octahedra.

20-Thexnet

Both of these images were created using Stella 4d, which you can try for yourself at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

Twenty Irregular Hexagons, Rotating Around a Common Axis

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Twenty Irregular Hexagons, Rotating Around a Common Axis

This image was produced using Stella 4d, which you may try for free, right here: http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

Polyhedron Featuring Twenty Regular Enneagons, Twelve Regular Pentagons, and Sixty Isosceles Triangles

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Polyhedron Featuring Twenty Regular Nonagons, Twelve Regular Pentagons, and Sixty Isosceles Triangles

If the isosceles triangles in this polyhedron were close enough to being equilateral that close inspection would be required to tell the difference, this would be a near-miss to the Johnson Solids. However, in my opinion, this doesn’t meet that test — so I’m calling this a “near-near-miss,” instead.

Software credit: visit this website if you would like to try a free trial download of Stella 4d, the program I used to create this image.