Soccer ball (Truncated icosahedron) assembly

thingiverse

A fellow mathematician friend of mine is coming to visit, and I wanted to present him with something mathematically impressive as a gift. I had this idea of creating an Archimedean solid that could be assembled by hand. I quickly realized over the weekend that if the connections were made perpendicular to the opposing faces, the finished ball would remain intact - requiring no glue whatsoever. I set up my printer as soon as I got home and was thrilled with the result. The truncated icosahedron is one of my favorite polyhedra, and since it's also a classic football pattern, I decided to print the pentagons in black and the hexagons in white for added visual appeal.