How to make a Tetrahedron Platonic Solid or a Four Sided D&D die (dice)

How to make a Tetrahedron Platonic Solid or a Four Sided D&D die (dice)

This instructable will show you how to make a 4 sided tetrahedron out of paper or cardboard. A quick little project that you can do with the kids. This should take about 10-15 minutes and if you can do this one you can move up to making the more complicated solids.

Step 1 Materials

Materials:

Superglue
Ruler
Pencil
Cardstock or thick paper
Scissors
Butter Knife

Nail Polish Remover: Just incase you accidentally glue your fingers.

Comments

[REA]

lol its the triforce!

[Eye Poker]

Marking the lines on the top and bottom of the paper insures you get a nice straight line. The 8mm line is used to find the right edge of the triangle. The 4mm line is used to determine the top of the triangle.

[citzar]

can you tell me what step two on step two means because i really do not get the wording. oh ya thanks for the instructable though. i need it for my math project.

[lemonie]

Looks tidy, but please explain how this is Platonic? L

[Eye Poker]

Well they are Platonic because Plato was really into them. Taken from Wikipedia, Platonic Solids: The Platonic solids feature prominently in the philosophy of Plato for whom they are named. Plato wrote about them in the dialogue Timaeus c.360 B.C. in which he associated each of the four classical elements (earth, air, water, and fire) with a regular solid. Earth was associated with the cube, air with the octahedron, water with the icosahedron, and fire with the tetrahedron. There was intuitive justification for these associations: the heat of fire feels sharp and stabbing (like little tetrahedra). Air is made of the octahedron; its minuscule components are so smooth that one can barely feel it. Water, the icosahedron, flows out of one's hand when picked up, as if it is made of tiny little balls. By contrast, a highly un-spherical solid, the hexahedron (cube) represents earth. These clumsy little solids cause dirt to crumble and break when picked up, in stark difference to the smooth flow of water. The fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, Plato obscurely remarks, "...the god used for arranging the constellations on the whole heaven". Aristotle added a fifth element, aithêr (aether in Latin, "ether" in English) and postulated that the heavens were made of this element, but he had no interest in matching it with Plato's fifth solid.

[lemonie]

I didn't know that, so I appreciate the comprehensive explanation.
Tetrahedron always reminds me of a publication though...
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/233/description

L

(I published something there once)