Variations in Platonic Solids
Instructions:
1. Choose
a picture block and put it carefullly in the mirror well.
2.
Look at the pattern formed. Can you create an image of
a regular polyhedron by means of mirror reflections?
3.
Put some other objects in the mirror well and see how
the regular polyhedron changes.
Do you know?
The symmetries possessed by
regular polyhedra allow us to create an image of the entire
regular polyhedron by using only one of its faces plus
a handful of mirrors. The number of images (including
the real object) formed equals the number of faces possessed
by the polyhedron. Needless to say, mirror wells are very
useful in designing interesting 3D patterns.
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