Geometry Students Discover Platonic Solids
Posted by Eric WernerEuclid’s Elements and Platonic Solids were the focus of the first two days of my 8th grade math class. After learning about the contributions of these two legendary mathematicians and philosophers, students were tasked with discovering the total number of Platonic Solids that could exist in 3D space through physical construction. They were gifted the cube as one of the five. They discovered the tetrahedron, the octahedron, the dodecahedron and the icosahedron completely on their own, and along the way learned how to prove which 2D shapes tessellate around a vertex in 3 dimensions (and which don’t). If you see one of these students, be sure to ask them how many regular polytopes could exist in 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, or 9-dimensional space!
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