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Complement of Sierpinski's Tetrahedron

Inspired by a request/challenge from my friend Andy Lin (who has an affinity for fractals)... This model is essentially a cluster of octahedra of various sizes. It represents the parts removed from the starting tetrahedron to form a sierpinski's tetrahedron. Each octahedron takes 4 units.

Blue = 1 octahedron = 4 units

Green = 4 octahedra = 16 units

Yellow = 4 x 4 octahedra = 64 units

Pink = 4 x 4 x 4 octahedra = 256 units

4 + 16 + 64 + 256 = 340 units

 

The locks holding the octahedra together is so strong that you can pick up the entire model from the top small pink octahedron without anything coming apart.

 

It took me a lot of chem lectures to fold this one... I have made diagrams for this model which can be found in the OUSA Annual Collection book from '06.

 

Diagrams here:

www.flickr.com/photos/8303956@N08/650685427/

 

(Photography by Shue-Yu Kwan, my dad)

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Uploaded on May 11, 2007
Taken on November 28, 2004