Paper models of polyhedra

April 23, 2004 6:24 AM

Friday Folding Fun! Paper models of polyhedra (most of which I had never heard of before). When finished they look like this. In many cases it's a toss up as to whether they're easier to fold or to pronounce; dodecicosidodecahedrons, anyone? Also: polyhedra info, indexes; and stellated icosahedra by shape and plan.
posted by carter (5 comments total)

My friend had one of these in her car. It was very impressive until I accidentally sat on it.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 7:21 AM on April 23, 2004

[This is good]

(and not just for kids who have lost their D&D dice)
posted by gwint at 7:34 AM on April 23, 2004

[This is good], but it's shaming to me that I was not the one to think of, research, and post it. You see, constructing paper polyhedra, most of them stellated ('cause that's when the real fun begins) was a longtime fascination of my high school math teacher - the one teacher who gave me hope about the sanity of teachers, adults, and education in general. And I wasn't even any good in math.
posted by soyjoy at 8:06 AM on April 23, 2004

I love these things. I love that someone has taken the time to put this together on a website. This pentakisdodecahedron makes my mouth water. Thanks for a neat post, carter!
posted by lobakgo at 12:11 PM on April 23, 2004

Thanks for this post! As a high-school math geek, I built a ton of these. This book describes a method for building paper polyhedra that's a lot easier, and produces much sturdier and better-looking models, than the fold-and-glue-tabs approach.
posted by fuzz at 4:14 AM on April 24, 2004