Platonic & Archimedean Solids (Wooden Books)

I've become interested in the building stones of the world lately and found this great deal.It was sold as the last one from a stock clearing and was cheap too.When I got it I was surprised over how small the book was in size. Not in contents.But still very satisfied with it.Are waiting for another 7-9 titles from the same series named "Wooden books".The reason why I "only" give 4/5 stars is because of the size. It would have been nice with bigger pictures.

This is basically a reference item, which is what I expected. It is well presented but somewhat spartan. On the whole, it works for me.

Returned as soon as I got it. Seriously could read the whole book in 20 minutes. Complete waste of money. Get Quadrivium instead.

a handy book, try auto-cad with this; as good homework, perfect for teachers to give a drafting student for extra credit!!

If you are interested in this book you should by Quadrivium by the same publisher instead, which is only $10 more and contains 5 other books and additional pages for all of them.

Came as described, very nice limited math book on the subject.

The diagrams are simple to see and the information is enough to get started looking for more. Easy language, lay person's terms.

Before even getting into my review,let me congratulate M.Connelly "Polyhedron" for his excellent review ,which gives a good summary of what's in this little book.I also noted that it is the one and only from him; and hope he continues to submit more in the future.I first came across this series of small,but enchanting books some time ago when I found "Sacred Geometry" by Miranda Lundy,Published in April,2001.I loved it; as you can see by my Review posted on November 28,2003.My interest was really tweaked with these models ,a couple of years ago.I met a man who made this type of models and,spent a few afternoons with him at his home.He also fell in love with these solid models and has built a couple of hundred of them.He is a retired engineer in his eighties and knew H.M.S.Coxeter and Magnus Wenninger.He worked out a way to build these Geometric models using wooden balls for the vertices and sticks for the edges.This leaves the faces empty,thus the solid models become skeletonal;resembling those used to show the arrangement of atoms in compounds.Drilling the holes in the balls is complicated and must be done very precisely.To accomplish this,he constructed a set-up and jigs for this purpose.He paints the balls different colours;creating very interesting configurations.He also built a computer which helps him calculate the angles for the holes and length of the sticks.His computer also allows him to find out what stellations are possible to construct as models,and which ones are not possible.He gave me one of his models and it is one of my prized possessions. The last page of the book,"Further Reading"will give the reader wonderful insights an exquisit examples of what fascinating solids are possible to construct.I have owned "Polyhedron Models" by Magnus Wenninger,and highly recommmend it;and also highly recommend his excellent Website to view his spectacular models. I had not known or even heard of George Hart;but now ,thanks to this book,I visited his Website and it is simply outstanding;and a must for anyone who wants to see to what heights these models can be taken.Oh yes,I wondered what other books existed in this series and a search on Amazon under "Wooden Books" produced anout 35 in all.If they are all as good as the ones I've seen,there are many more treasures to be found here. If you are a fan of Recreational Mathematics,you may already have "Mathematical Recreations" by W.W. Rouse Ball,a classic,first published in 1892 and published in many later Editions.The 11th Edition contained a new chapter "Polyhedra' by Dr.H.S. M. Coxeter mentioned above.It has been reprinted several times. If you want to look further in this subject,I strongly recommend the book "King Of Infinite Space"-The Man Who Saved Geometry by Siobhan Roberts in 2006; one of his students.I reviewed that book on February 11,2008.

Good book .

Bien qu'on trouve largement tout ce qu'on veut sur internet concernant les polyèdres, ce petit livre dont le seul défaut est d'être écrit en anglais nous donnera l'essentiel à savoir sur la question si l'on est simple curieux et non professionnel en la matière. J'ai apprécié les petites figures très fines en noir et blanc dont quelques paires de stéréogrammes qui permettent une vision en relief de solides inscrits les uns dans les autres si on sait loucher dessus comme il faut pour en faire surgir l'effet. Référence fournie par Claude Lothier dont le blog présente une extraordinaire galerie de solides fait main.