Geodesic Sphere

rhubarbpie · Visitor Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 18 Local time: 8:20 AM

Is it possible to increase the size of a geodesic sphere without increasing the triangle size?

If I understand the structures, the building blocks are equilateral triangles. Assuming the triangle struts are a length of 1, can a sphere be greatly increased in size while maintaining a strut length of 1? In other words, increase the number of triangles without increasing the size of the individual triangles.

Kraft · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:35 pm Post subject:

Do you mean spheres or icosahedrals?

If the latter, the answer is yes, just look at viruses and their capsids.

You can make a big triangle out of many small ones.
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rhubarbpie · Visitor Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 18 Local time: 8:20 AM

A sphere; basically a geodesic ball. The basic building block is an equilateral triangle. I believe the next is a six-sided structure composed of equilateral triangles connecting at a central point.

It seems to me such a geodesic ball can be scaled up infinitely using the same size building block triangle. Yes/no?

kmisho · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:34 pm Post subject:

Bucky balls.

Yes. You do not need to increase the size of the triangles. You can add more triangles.

Yes. Bucky balls have no upper limit on the number of sides. And if the length of a side is fixed, the size of bucky balls that can be built based on that unit have no upper limit.
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rhubarbpie · Visitor Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 18 Local time: 8:20 AM

Thank you. That seems logical and it seems the Epcot Center is a good example. I'm uncertain whether it's a complete sphere, but it seems to be built of triangles smaller than those of most geodesic domes.

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