All Five Platonic Solids Puzzle

thingiverse

A casual glance at my possessions will reveal that I have a bit of an obsession with the Platonic solids...I've also been quite enthusiastic about "coordinate motion" puzzles: puzzles in which all the pieces must move simultaneously to assemble or disassemble them. With this project, I've attempted to purge both of those obsessions somewhat. Now I own a wooden puzzle where all 5 Platonic solids nest inside each other. There was even an article in The New York Times about this puzzle. But I've always found it a bit unsatisfying; I'm not quite sure why. So I've tried my hand at creating my own puzzle where all of the Platonic solids nest inside each other. And each one is a coordinated-motion puzzle as well. Each individual puzzle consists of multiple copies of just one piece, which exhibit not only the symmetry of each Platonic solid but also the relationship between the symmetries of each. Everything is quite easy to print. I would use fine detail (such as 0.1mm layer height if you can) for the tetrahedron puzzle. I think everything else would be fine with 0.2mm. The cube pieces require a small amount of support, but I printed everything else without any support. Each STL file name indicates how many you need to print, but for reference: Icosahedron piece: 4 copies Dodecahedron piece: 6 copies Cube piece: 4 copies Tetrahedron piece: 4 copies Octahedron: 1 copy The puzzles are tricky to assemble, but also can be tricky to disassemble. It always seems like you don't have enough hands to get the job done well! But I've discovered a cool trick that works on some of them. A hint: there's a magical (but fictitious) force in physics which pulls outward in all directions from an axis on a body... I've also included, as usual, the Python notebook I used to design this puzzle. Enjoy!