Explore Solid Nets Apps and Print Models

Are you looking for solid nets resources, printable worksheets, or interactive apps? Check out the five websites below. These sites contains resources about solids, their properties, and their nets. Printable nets are also available.

Annenberg Media has an interactive page on Platonic solids, prisms, and pyramids. It allows users to rotate 3d shapes and see how the solids are formed from their nets.

Illuminations has a page that lets you explore nets of Platonic solids. What is good about this interactive program is that it also allows you to create your own net.

Math Interactives  allows users to explore the relationship between the volume of the solids and their nets. Users can also check if their visualization skill by predicting the top view, front view, and side view of the solids.

solid nets

Maths is Fun – Maths is fun has a page about Platonic solids. The resource includes properties, printable nets, as well as 3d interactive animations.

SEN Teacher is a website that provides free learning materials. The website has free printable nets of polyhedra which is available in PDF. The website also allows users to create  customize nets putting images on them creating “photonets.”

Regular Tessellations: Why only three of them?

In Tessellations: The Mathematics of Tiling post, we have learned that there are only three regular polygons that can tessellate the plane: squares, equilateral triangles, and regular hexagons. In Figure 1, we can see why this is so. The angle sum of the interior angles  of the regular polygons meeting at a point add up to 360 degrees.

Figure 1 – Tessellating regular polygons.

Looking at the other regular polygons as shown in Figure 2, we can see clearly why the polygons cannot tessellate. The sums of the interior angles are either greater than or less than 360 degrees. » Read more

Platonic Solids: Why only five of them?

Regular polygons are polygons with congruent sides and congruent interior angles.  In three dimensions, the equivalent of regular polygons are regular polyhedra — solids whose faces are congruent regular polygons.  The most common regular polyhedron is the cube whose faces are congruent squares.  The other regular polyhedra are shown below.

The Platonic Solids

Regular polyhedra are also known as Platonic solids — named after the Greek philosopher and mathematician Plato. The Greeks studied Platonic solids extensively, and they even associated them with the four classic elements: cube for earth, octahedron for air, icosahedron for water, and tetrahedron for fire. » Read more