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This task develops spatial reasoning skills. By framing and asking questions a member of the team has to find out what mathematical object they have chosen.
Join some regular octahedra, face touching face and one vertex of each meeting at a point. How many octahedra can you fit around this point?
Show that the edges $AD$ and $BC$ of a tetrahedron $ABCD$ are mutually perpendicular if and only if $AB^2 +CD^2 = AC^2+BD^2$. This problem uses the scalar product of two vectors.
In a right-angled tetrahedron prove that the sum of the squares of the areas of the 3 faces in mutually perpendicular planes equals the square of the area of the sloping face. A generalisation of Pythagoras' Theorem.
Is it possible to have a tetrahedron whose six edges have lengths 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 units?
The twelve edge totals of a standard six-sided die are distributed symmetrically. Will the same symmetry emerge with a dodecahedral die?
These models have appeared around the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. Perhaps you would like to try to make some similar models of your own.
In a recent workshop, students made these solids. Can you think of reasons why I might have grouped the solids in the way I have before taking the pictures?
In this article, we look at solids constructed using symmetries of their faces.
60 pieces and a challenge. What can you make and how many of the pieces can you use creating skeleton polyhedra?
A description of how to make the five Platonic solids out of paper.
An irregular tetrahedron has two opposite sides the same length a and the line joining their midpoints is perpendicular to these two edges and is of length b. What is the volume of the tetrahedron?
An irregular tetrahedron is composed of four different triangles. Can such a tetrahedron be constructed where the side lengths are 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 units of length?
What are the shortest distances between the centres of opposite faces of a regular solid dodecahedron on the surface and through the middle of the dodecahedron?
Follow instructions to fold sheets of A4 paper into pentagons and assemble them to form a dodecahedron. Calculate the error in the angle of the not perfectly regular pentagons you make.
Here is a proof of Euler's formula in the plane and on a sphere together with projects to explore cases of the formula for a polygon with holes, for the torus and other solids with holes and the relationship between Euler's formula and angle deficiency of polyhedra.
Toni Beardon has chosen this article introducing a rich area for practical exploration and discovery in 3D geometry
What is the shortest distance through the middle of a dodecahedron between the centres of two opposite faces?
ABCD is a regular tetrahedron and the points P, Q, R and S are the midpoints of the edges AB, BD, CD and CA. Prove that PQRS is a square.
Can you prove that in every tetrahedron there is a vertex where the three edges meeting at that vertex have lengths which could be the sides of a triangle?
A tetrahedron has two identical equilateral triangles faces, of side length 1 unit. The other two faces are right angled isosceles triangles. Find the exact volume of the tetrahedron.
Glarsynost lives on a planet whose shape is that of a perfect regular dodecahedron. Can you describe the shortest journey she can make to ensure that she will see every part of the planet?
We are given a regular icosahedron having three red vertices. Show that it has a vertex that has at least two red neighbours.