*slaps roof* this bad boy can fit so many fucking polyhedra in it
December 1, 2020 9:48 AM Subscribe
You looking for Platonic solids? Maybe some versi-regular polyhedra? How about some regular hexagonal toroidal solids? We've even got self-intersecting quasi-quasi-regular duals, though we can't legally insure those.
We got all this and more down at dmccooey's visual polyhedra site, your one-stop shopping destination for HTML5 polyhedral renderings.
We got all this and more down at dmccooey's visual polyhedra site, your one-stop shopping destination for HTML5 polyhedral renderings.
Truncated Octohedron is my favorite, since it's just square and hexagonal surfaces, and also is space-filling when stacked together.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:09 AM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:09 AM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I love Platonic, Archimedean and Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra! Johnson solids are okay but sus though. At the 2019 Craneway craft fair in Richmond there was a lovely booth called 'Cubes and Things' run by Stacy Speyer with some lovely coloring books and craft kits to help you make sure your kids grow up into proper little polyhedra appreciating nerds.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:27 AM on December 1, 2020
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:27 AM on December 1, 2020
But why? What are these secret shapes Big Shape doesn't want you to know about? [slyt]
posted by otherchaz at 10:30 AM on December 1, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by otherchaz at 10:30 AM on December 1, 2020 [8 favorites]
my favorite polyhedron site is this one
posted by Stu-Pendous at 12:18 PM on December 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Stu-Pendous at 12:18 PM on December 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Some of these names can only be declaimed in the style of Leonard Sachs from The Good Old Days: “Great Dirhombicosidodecahedron! Great Ditrigonal Dodecacronic Hexecontahedron!” accompanied by hammy oohs and aahs from the crowd.
posted by scruss at 12:34 PM on December 1, 2020
posted by scruss at 12:34 PM on December 1, 2020
I have this sudden urge to buy a bunch of dice....
posted by mstokes650 at 12:45 PM on December 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by mstokes650 at 12:45 PM on December 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
I made many of the models in Magnus Wenninger's Polyhedron Models book after I'd won a copy in a school math competition.
Coding these was probably harder. :^)
posted by AbnerRavenwood at 12:47 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Coding these was probably harder. :^)
posted by AbnerRavenwood at 12:47 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
I am aware of no reason for me to need this site but I am quite glad it exists. This website, imo, is exactly what the internet is for!
posted by aniola at 1:00 PM on December 1, 2020
posted by aniola at 1:00 PM on December 1, 2020
I really should not look at this link until after I get some more things done on my list today, but I am quite delighted to hear of this.
posted by yohko at 1:21 PM on December 1, 2020
posted by yohko at 1:21 PM on December 1, 2020
If you're feeling crafty*.
* start here.
posted by tayknight at 1:35 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
* start here.
posted by tayknight at 1:35 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
> But why? What are these secret shapes Big Shape doesn't want you to know about?
so my kid found this video a few months back and was OBSESSED with it and made everybody in the house sit down and watch it several times over (I recommend a stiff drink first) and there were arguments over the dinner table about whether an infinite plane reeeeallllly counts as a polyhedron and the upshot is that he still stumbles over his seven times tables but will cheerfully tell you the Schläfli symbols of whatever he's just made out of Geomag.
A mathematician friend recommended this delightful book which is just about the icosahedron, never mind polyhedra in general.
posted by doop at 3:46 PM on December 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
so my kid found this video a few months back and was OBSESSED with it and made everybody in the house sit down and watch it several times over (I recommend a stiff drink first) and there were arguments over the dinner table about whether an infinite plane reeeeallllly counts as a polyhedron and the upshot is that he still stumbles over his seven times tables but will cheerfully tell you the Schläfli symbols of whatever he's just made out of Geomag.
A mathematician friend recommended this delightful book which is just about the icosahedron, never mind polyhedra in general.
posted by doop at 3:46 PM on December 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
doop: Chances are you've already gotten this recommendation but when your son gets a bit older (or now, if he's precocious reading-wise too... in fact it's occurring to me that perhaps he's already read it) he'd probably enjoy the inveterate classic Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Wikipedia, MeFi tag) written in the 19th century by the headmaster of the City of London School.
posted by XMLicious at 4:45 PM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 4:45 PM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Looks like The Fifty-Nine Icosahedra is available to borrow at the Internet Archive (after registering for a free account.)
posted by Charles Bronson Pinchot at 4:52 PM on December 1, 2020
posted by Charles Bronson Pinchot at 4:52 PM on December 1, 2020
Nice, if slightly flawed, site. It's totally missing the sixth platonic solid. The teapotohedron.
posted by sammyo at 10:54 PM on December 1, 2020
posted by sammyo at 10:54 PM on December 1, 2020
Even just the Platonic solids are pretty tricky.
A while back, Branko Grunbaum pointed out that the icosahedron which had been the symbol of the American Mathematical Association for years was mistakenly drawn, and no one had noticed.
FWIW, I could not tell which of the two versions presented in the link was correct, even with the hint.
posted by jamjam at 11:55 PM on December 1, 2020
A while back, Branko Grunbaum pointed out that the icosahedron which had been the symbol of the American Mathematical Association for years was mistakenly drawn, and no one had noticed.
FWIW, I could not tell which of the two versions presented in the link was correct, even with the hint.
posted by jamjam at 11:55 PM on December 1, 2020
I had to chase that reference down, and Grunbaum's whole paper is worth reading. Not very technical, mostly just examples of terribly drawn geometry he found in places.
posted by wanderingmind at 12:27 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by wanderingmind at 12:27 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
One of my interests. Here's another great site by George Hart (father of Vi Hart). And if you want to play with Polys on your PC, you should check out this software, Stella, by Robert Webb. Want to make physical models? Zometool is great.
posted by domdib at 4:00 AM on December 2, 2020
posted by domdib at 4:00 AM on December 2, 2020
I've spent the past year learning to 3d model very simple platonic solids so that they can become dice, and... boy is my DM gonna hate when I show up with a d22.
posted by specialagentwebb at 6:30 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by specialagentwebb at 6:30 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
My 3yo son has a set of those tiles with magnets at the edges, and I find it really compelling, when playing with him, to build some of these solids. It is nice to have names for some of them.
(He finds it really compelling to smash them as soon as I have finished, which makes the whole endeavor into an exercise in the grace of letting things go.)
posted by gauche at 6:38 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
(He finds it really compelling to smash them as soon as I have finished, which makes the whole endeavor into an exercise in the grace of letting things go.)
posted by gauche at 6:38 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Another good one: https://polyhedra.tessera.li/ along with a conference talk
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective at 6:50 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective at 6:50 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I am not a mathematician (nor do I play one on TV) and I can barely wrap my head around the basics, but I while back I read and very much enjoyed "The King of Infinite Space" by Siobhan Roberts, which is a biography of HSM Coxeter. HSMC was a famous (maybe the famous, in the context of geometers) 20th century geometer and is referenced indirectly above in a couple of spots.
might be out of print? but recommended all the same.
posted by hearthpig at 8:00 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
might be out of print? but recommended all the same.
posted by hearthpig at 8:00 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Following hearthpig's excellent comments I see that HSMC wrote a book called Twisted Honeycombs, which is an awesome title.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:24 AM on December 2, 2020
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:24 AM on December 2, 2020
Minesweeper 3D
Play minesweeper on a wide range of polyhedra.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:54 AM on December 2, 2020
Play minesweeper on a wide range of polyhedra.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:54 AM on December 2, 2020
Yes/No/Maybe?
Another mouth to feed. yesyesyesyesyes
posted by xedrik at 11:59 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Another mouth to feed. yesyesyesyesyes
posted by xedrik at 11:59 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by carter at 9:53 AM on December 1, 2020 [29 favorites]