Thread: Need some geometry help

Bucky balls are based on pentagons and hexagons.

This ball is pentagons and rhomboids.

It's a very interesting shape. It looks like the pentagons are centered at the vertexes of a regular icosahedron, with the stars (as well as their pentagons) twisted to engage the short legs of their neighbours. So, 12 (vertexes) x 5 (stars, each) = 60 stars required for the entire assembly, and ALL 60 are identical.

The long legs of the stars might beneficially be just a hair longer than earlier computed, to fit a spherical surface, although the stack of 5 might compensate for that. (Stacks of 3 elsewhere).

I'd suggest making a cardboard model of the half-ball (only 30 stars), before proceeding with final construction in your preferred material.

Where did you find this, BTW? Google was inconclusive; maybe not the right keywords, I guess.

Cheers,
Joe <WWF\Coral02ax.jpg

Hi Joe,

the shade is made by a New Zealand based designer named David Trubridge - his work is displayed at this site. Some really fabulous, fluid construction to his furniture, and a very strong eco-sensitive ethic in not only material use and choice, but also in packaging and shipping.

I would love to support him, and his work, but unfortunately (for our budget at least) the best price I can find this in Sydney is $695 (and we need two!) - which is why I'm even contemplating making something similar. I don't want to be stealing other people's design - so once I have the principal of making a sphere down I will be making my own variation on the theme. If it works I'll post some WIP - if it doesn't I'll hide it away somewhere!