A Cameo for our Silhouette Printer!

The IGL is home to a Silhouette Cameo printer. This printer allows us to cut designs into card stock paper.

While the possible uses of this machine are endless, our primary use of this printer is to cut polyhedra nets. Recall that a polyhedron is a solid living in three space made from flat faces, straight edges, and sharp corners. The net of a polyhedron is an arrangement of polygons in the plane which can be folded to become the faces of the polyhedron. We print our nets onto 5 different colors of card stock.

Each piece of paper has the net for 5 different platonic solids. Today, for your viewing pleasure, I used two nets to make platonic solids. I began with a cube as a warm up. The net is easy to punch out of the card stock.

I folded the paper along the predetermined edges and began sticking tabs into slots.

It was fairly easy going until I had to place the final face into position. I believe little fingers have a definite advantage in assembly.

And done! A cube!

Next, I folded an icosahedron, a solid folded from 20 triangles.

With the cube, I carelessly attached faces wherever. I quickly found I needed to pay attention with this net, or I was not going to end up with an icosahedron. Incorrect start shown.

I started over and fairly quickly arrived at attaching the final face.

Again, the last face was the hardest part. At last, an icosahedron!

As a final note, our polydra nets have become a vital component of our outreach activities. Below, graduate students assist children at Lego League in using the nets to fold solids.