Tetrahedral Kite

Tetrahedral Kite
This project will tell you how to build a tetrahedral kite out of cheap household materials.
 
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Step 1Gather your materials

You will need:
*A lot of bendy straws. You will need 12 per cell of kite, so for the 16-cell kite shown, you will need 12x16=192 straws. Best make it 200 for the ones you will mess up on.
*Plenty of good ol' Scotch Tape. You may get by with a roll, if you are awesome, but I bought a three-pack.
*Twist-ties. Get these from garbage bag packets, or bread bags- you should have some around. You will need a fair number.
*Lifting surface. This should be thin and light, yet durable. Grocery bags work, as do garbage bags, good tissue paper, wrapping paper, mylar, chip bags, you get the idea. This is where the colour will come from, so go all out here.
*Kite String. Salvage it from an older kite, or buy it. Don't bother getting the nice stuff, the kind you get with a $2 kite from Wal-Mart works great.
*Dowel (optional)- If you are building a very large kite, this can add some stability.
Tools you will need:
*Scissors
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11 comments
Apr 21, 2006. 3:26 AMdan says:
wow! do you have a photo of it flying?
Apr 27, 2009. 2:31 PMclemsonguy1125 says:
considering it is 3 year later and still no pics i asume you forgot
Apr 18, 2010. 3:39 PMdombeef says:
 When?
Aug 28, 2011. 10:18 AMjbussé says:
in three years =D lol
Mar 14, 2009. 3:43 PMCharles IV says:
It's a Sierpinski triangle kite!
Jan 14, 2007. 3:52 PMKiteman says:
For a safe way to launch and land this kite, check this article I wrote for the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3641744
Jan 6, 2007. 11:50 AMkovessiz says:
Hi, have a look at my site - http://kovessiz.atw.hu - and you will find step-by-step pix of how i built a collapsible tetrahedron.

Perhaps you're interested in a newspaper flowform kite, too. Step-by-step
Fair winds,

Zsolt KÖVESSI
Apr 21, 2006. 9:00 AMdhammy says:
In a tetrahedron, wouldn't ANY two cells be adjacent? ;) BTW, cool kite!

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Author:bemdude
I'm what you call a first year sophomore at George Mason University. My building activities have been somewhat curtailed as a result of having to live in the teensy first-year dorms, but I still fit ...
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