Do you know what these special solid shapes are called?

The Platonic Solids

Every face is the same regular Polygon

The same number of faces meet at every vertex

The Tetrahedron

60°

60°

Draw an equilateral triangle with one edge being the short side of your envelope

The Tetrahedron

60°

60°

Draw a line at right angles across the envelope and cut off the part of envelope which is not needed (unless you would like to make another tetrahedron from it!)

The Tetrahedron

60°

60°

Fold along the two red lines both one way then the other

The Tetrahedron

60°

60°

Push the two corners of the cut off end together

The Tetrahedron

Image created by Robert Webb's Great Stella software http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php

The Icosahedron

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

These shapes make up an icosahedron – how?

Origami Cube

Icosahedron

= Water

Dodecahedron

= Ether/Prana

Tetrahedron

= Fire

Octahedron

= Air

Hexahedron

= Earth

Carbon

Virus

Football Amoeba

Magic 8-ball

Challenge!

• Can you make an octahedron or a dodecahedron out of paper? (Look on the internet for instructions)

• Can you work out why there are only 5 platonic solids (harder)

The Dodecahedron