Compounds · 3D
Five Tetrahedra
Compound of five tetrahedra / five cubes
Five tetrahedra, each turned a fifth of a turn about a golden axis, share the twenty corners of a dodecahedron. Swap to five cubes for its sister compound.
- Tetrahedra
- 5
- Shared vertices
- 20
Turn it in your hands, strike it to hear the chord of its edges, slice it with a plane.
Facts
- Every vertex of the dodecahedron is used by exactly one tetrahedron (or two cubes).
- The tetrahedra compound comes in left- and right-handed forms.
- The five cubes compound was published by Edmund Hess in 1876.
History and meaning
A favourite of M. C. Escher, whose 1950s engraving “Waterfall” is crowned by the compound of three cubes and a stellated form.
