1 Jul
2007
1 Jul
'07
2:44 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great der Mouse once stated:
No, I'm not sure I meant a solid icosahedron. I
was only thinking as
far as a tetrahedron has equilateral triangles as faces, and so does
an icosahedron.
Then yes, there's no reason you couldn't take 20 tetrahedra and
position them so as to result in something that's basically a
tetrahedron constructed, inward-pointing, on each face of an
icosahedron. (It might not be all that easy to realize physically, but
that's a separate issue.)
Won't work. I tried doing that with a Magnetix kit, and the results
weren't encouraging:
http://www.flummux.org/ico1.jpg
http://www.flummux.org/ico2.jpg
You can see the gaps there the struts aren't long enough due to the angles
involved.
I have, however, made a regular icosahedron that's *very stable*, albeit
*very hollow*.
-spc (Magnetix are basically plastic struts with magnets at the end, and
a bunch of metal balls, and very fun to play with)
Can you make
an icosahedron out of tetrahedra?
No - at least not assuming you mean a solid
regular icosahedron and
regular tetrahedra. [...] 
