A tetrahedral expanded to a icosahedron

  • Thread starter Alfi
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This object is known as a hypertetrahedron, created from 5 tetrahedrons and 12 triangles. In summary, the conversation is about a unique mathematical object that the speaker has been investigating for a long time. It consists of a hypertetrahedron made out of toothpicks and glue, and it has connections to hexaflexagons and other mathematical concepts. The speaker is seeking help in understanding and describing this object.
  • #1
Alfi
This is really starting to bug me.

I built an object out of tooth picks and glue.
It's simple. An equilateral triangle pyramid. A four sided dice.
And then when I add a tetrahedral from each of the four faces ... it becomes an object that I just can't seem to find a description of in any of the dozens of math books I've read or on the internet.

I've been investigating this thing since I independently discovered my first hexaflexagon.
It took ten years of library search and the spread of the internet to let me know about Arthur Stone and his studies. I now have many 3,4,5,6 faced examples. And a neat example in 3d of the... Tuckerman traverse
The six sided ones led me to the models that show they are parts of icosahedron. continuing searches : http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/findi...oral/pmc41.htm
Tukey: Arthur, yes. When did Arthur come? He must have been here by '39. Arthur, Dick Feynman, Bryant Tuckerman—who went to IBM—and I were the people who invented hexaflexagons. This came about because Arthur had an English-size notebook. Woolworth sold only American-size paper. He had to cut strips off the edges. He had to do something with the strips, so he started folding polygons. When he folded the hexagon he had the first hexaflexagon. Later came the Feynman diagram, the Tuckerman traverse, and so on.
It is an interesting object to me. I use it to create 20 sided dice with extensions that are 90 degree offset and they just lead me to see the next iteration using each face as the contact to the next icosahedron.

My problem is that I don't know any of the skills needed to make my 'simple math object' into a series of frames that show the growth of the iterations.
any help or direction that would help me to further my desire to understand and describe this object would be appreciated. Thanks : Alfi
 

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  • #2
I think this is what I was looking for

http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/hypertetrahedron.htm. If you spread out the hypertetrahedron, you get 5 tetrahedrons as its net. Together the five tetrahedrons have 5*4=20 triangles. 2*4=8 triangles are bound. If you build a hypertetrahedron, you must stick the remaining 12 triangles in pairs.
 

1. What is a tetrahedral expanded to a icosahedron?

A tetrahedral expanded to a icosahedron is a process in which a regular tetrahedron (a polyhedron with four triangular faces) is transformed into an icosahedron (a polyhedron with twenty triangular faces) by expanding each of its four faces into three new faces.

2. What is the significance of this transformation?

This transformation is significant because it demonstrates the relationship between two different types of polyhedra and how they can be transformed into each other through geometric manipulations.

3. How is a tetrahedral expanded to a icosahedron performed?

To perform this transformation, each of the four faces of the tetrahedron is divided into three smaller equilateral triangles. The original vertices of the tetrahedron are then connected to the new vertices to create the icosahedron.

4. What are the properties of a icosahedron?

An icosahedron has 20 equilateral triangular faces, 30 edges, and 12 vertices. It is a highly symmetrical shape, with rotational symmetry of order 60, and is one of the five Platonic solids.

5. What are some real-life examples of a icosahedron?

The icosahedron can be found in nature in the form of certain viruses, such as herpes simplex and adenovirus. It is also commonly used in architecture, such as in the domes of the Taj Mahal and the Florence Cathedral. In addition, it can be seen in sports equipment, such as soccer balls and golf balls.

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