Cut & Assemble 3-D Geometrical Shapes: 10 Models in Full Color (Models & Toys) [Paperback]

A. G. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Models & Toys

Complete step-by-step instructions and diagrams for assembling 10 full-color geometric solids — tetrahedron, octahedron, cube, trapezohedron, icosahedron, simple and intricate variations of dodecahedrons. Fun and educational. 16 plates of assembly diagrams.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; 81st edition (June 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486250938
• ISBN-13: 978-0486250939
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,363,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just one short of a full set, October 14, 2009

By 

Gordon E. Ness (Edmonds, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cut & Assemble 3-D Geometrical Shapes: 10 Models in Full Color (Models & Toys) (Paperback)

The kit contains colored paper models for the five Platonic solids (the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron, and dodecahedron) and three of the four Kepler-Poinsot star polyhedra (the small stellated dodecahedron, the great stellated dodecahedron, and the great dodecahedron). Only Poinsot's great icosahedron is missing from having a full set of the nine "regular" polyhedra. This is unfortunate but perhaps understandable since the last has 180 sharply folded faces as I figure it. Drat! I'll have to make my own. The kit also includes Kepler's "stella octangula" which is a compound of two tetrahedra - it is it's own twin - and a very pleasing figure.

The models went together with only a little patience and no particular trouble. Cut out the pages; mark the vertices of the parts with a pin (I used a disecting needle); turn the paper over and use a pencil and metal straight-edge to score the fold lines between the pin-hole vertices; turn the paper over color-side up and use an Exacto knife and the straight-edge to carefully cut the part out; turn it over again and fold the edges with the help of the straight edge; glue the tabs in the indicated sequence with a quick setting paper glue.

These figures have fascinated artists (e.g. Da Vinci, Escher), mathematicians (e.g Euclid, Poinsit, Euler and many more) and scientists(e.g. Kepler and many more including me) ever since Plato's Timaeus and probably Pythagoras before him. Some non-technical books that amplify the subject include Shapes, Space, and Symmetry by Alan Holden (Dover, 1971), Platonic & Archimedean Solids by Daud Sutton (Walker and Co., 2002), and maybe Polyhedron Models by Magnus Wenninger (Cambridge University Press, 1971).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delight, November 16, 2000

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cut & Assemble 3-D Geometrical Shapes: 10 Models in Full Color (Models & Toys) (Paperback)

I love boxes of almost any kind, and enjoy origami, the art of paper folding. This book has a variety of shapes that might easily be used for gift boxes, others for party or Christmas decorations. Some are patently too elaborate for the beginner, and some are probably too time consuming for anyone but the dedicated connaiseur, but many would be doable by the school aged child with some adult guidence. It would be a wonderful way of teaching geometric forms and spacial relationships to anyone from grade school to high school.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars math and art integration, January 3, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (aurora illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cut & Assemble 3-D Geometrical Shapes: 10 Models in Full Color (Models & Toys) (Paperback)

This book provides a teacher a wonderful way to engage students in learning both geometry and art at the sametime. The kids love it in my eighth grade art classes.