This is excellent. It is refreshing to see students exploring 3D concepts in a 3D environment. Too often we switch to a 2D model or a symbolic model and that means we ourselves do some unnecessary pre-processing before we let others loose on it. This impoverishes us and them. I love the big human scale of this. I too would be interested in the materials used to do this. I am currently looking at a variety of ways of making solids that make them easy to build,and explore.
I love this so much! I'm anxious to do this with my 7th/8th next week when we begin our Pythagorean Solids/Sacred Geometry block. Thank you for explaining that these were not commercially bought. What size magnets did you use, and how many rods did you make altogether to have enough for them to go through the various solids builds? Also, I have 8 students -- will that number of rods be sufficient? Thank you!!!
I'm sorry Amy - I don't have the exact measurements handy - but I can say it took some tweaking. It's all about relative lengths. The edges of the tetrahedrons are the longest rods, so assume they're 36". They become the diagonal of the cube, so the cube edges will have a relative length of 1:Sq.Rt. of 2. making those a little less than 25.5". The edges of the dodecahedron have a relative length (to the edges of the cube) of 1:phi or about .618, making them a little less than 15.75". But that's mathematical. Practically, you need to get it started to adjust the lengths. But start with the 36" lengths for the tetrahedrons. drill tiny holes in the ends and put in some round or pan headed steel screws maybe size 4 or less. Get a bunch of .5" spherical magnets. and play. The screws and the magnets fudge the math, so you have to adjust to see what works. Hope that helps, email me if you would like to have a conversation, and I can tell you more about my process.
This is excellent. It is refreshing to see students exploring 3D concepts in a 3D environment. Too often we switch to a 2D model or a symbolic model and that means we ourselves do some unnecessary pre-processing before we let others loose on it. This impoverishes us and them. I love the big human scale of this. I too would be interested in the materials used to do this. I am currently looking at a variety of ways of making solids that make them easy to build,and explore.
This was not a commercial set. I made it with 1/4" dowel rods, steel screws and spherical magnets..
I love this so much! I'm anxious to do this with my 7th/8th next week when we begin our Pythagorean Solids/Sacred Geometry block. Thank you for explaining that these were not commercially bought. What size magnets did you use, and how many rods did you make altogether to have enough for them to go through the various solids builds? Also, I have 8 students -- will that number of rods be sufficient? Thank you!!!
Astonishing and wonderful!
Very nice!👍
Icosahedron: Am I a joke to you?
Shoulda known it was Waldorf.
SO jealous!
How did you connect the "roof" edges for the pentagon? What kind of material/glue did you use?
Hi,
What do you use as connectors?
Thanks
Is this a commercially available building set? If so, could you post a link?
Do you have the measurements for the lengths you used? I would like to make a set of my own. Thanks!
I'm sorry Amy - I don't have the exact measurements handy - but I can say it took some tweaking. It's all about relative lengths. The edges of the tetrahedrons are the longest rods, so assume they're 36". They become the diagonal of the cube, so the cube edges will have a relative length of 1:Sq.Rt. of 2. making those a little less than 25.5". The edges of the dodecahedron have a relative length (to the edges of the cube) of 1:phi or about .618, making them a little less than 15.75". But that's mathematical. Practically, you need to get it started to adjust the lengths. But start with the 36" lengths for the tetrahedrons. drill tiny holes in the ends and put in some round or pan headed steel screws maybe size 4 or less. Get a bunch of .5" spherical magnets. and play. The screws and the magnets fudge the math, so you have to adjust to see what works. Hope that helps, email me if you would like to have a conversation, and I can tell you more about my process.
Thank you so much! This is perfect.
what do you use for connecting the vetices of it?
+Arra Pano - The ends of the 1/4" dowels have stainless steel screws in them, and I used 1/2" spherical magnets to join them.
+Arra Pano - Read below for more details.
Thankyou :)
I bet you could get what you need at the hardware store for less.