Boback 1 The Cuboctahedron Although you would not normally see a cuboctahedron, or cubo, in your everyday life, it is a very

unique and interesting solid. It can be thought of in a variety of ways. It could be thought of as a cube with its corners cut off at the midpoints of the edges, or as a right square prism with four rectangular prisms attached to the lateral faces. It could also be thought of as eight tetrahedrons and six regular square pyramids. Using those ideas, you can find the volume and surface of the cuboctahedron knowing only that an edge of the cube surrounding it is 27.6 inches.

Figure 1. Finding an Edge of a Cuboctahedron First, knowing that the edge of the cube is 27.6 inches, look at one of the squares on the cubo. Imagine it is inside the cube, so there is the square of the cubo and surrounding it are four isosceles right triangles (see figure 1). Since it is a right triangle, one of the angle measures is 90 degrees. The other two angles are the same since it is an isosceles triangle, making them 45 degrees each because the interior angles of a triangle should add up to 180 degrees. The legs of the triangles stop at the midpoint of the face of the cube, making them 13.8 inches. Using the

Boback 2 properties of a 45-45-90 degree triangle, the hypotenuse of the triangle is inches, x being the length of one of the legs. So, the hypotenuse, or one edge of the cubo, would be inches.

Since an edge of the cubo is found, it will help to find the surface area of the cubo. Finding the surface area of a cubo is basically just finding the surface area of all the figures found in it and adding them together. There are only two different figures in a cubo, squares and triangles. The area formula for a triangle is area = ( triangle in the cubo is the same as the edge, )( ), or a= bh. The base of the

inches. The height is a little more difficult.

Since this triangle is an equilateral, cutting it in half will make two 30-60-90 degree triangles. Using the properties of those triangles, the length of the second leg would be . That would make the height of the triangle ( )( inches. With the height and the base, the area is ), then into . So, the area

), which simplifies down into (

of one triangular face of the cubo is is multiplied by eight. So,

inches2. Since there are eight triangular faces, ( ), which is inches2. For the square

faces, the area equation is area= (base)(height), or a= bh. Both the base and the height of the square are edges of the cubo, so they are ( )( inches. The area of the square is

), or 380.88 inches2. Since there are six square faces on the cubo, that are is

then multiplied by six, 380.88(6) which is 2,285.28 inches2. The areas of both the squares and the triangles are added to get the total surface area of the cubo. Area= 2,285.28+761.76 . So, the total surface area of the cubo is 2,285.28+761.76 inches2.

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Figure 2. Cube with its Corners Cut Off One way to look at a cubo is to imagine a cube with all of its corners cut off at the midpoints of the edges (see figure 2). Finding the volume this way is basically just finding the volume of the cube and subtracting the volumes of all the corner pieces. First, the formula to find the volume of the cube is volume= x3, x being the edge of the cube, which is 27.6. So the volume of the cube is 27.63, or 21,024.576 inches3. The volume formula for the corner pieces is volume = ( )( ), or v= ( )( ). Two of the pyramids faces are

isosceles right triangles, the edge they share is a midpoint of the edge of the cube, so the height of the pyramid is 13.8 inches. Since the base of the pyramid is also an isosceles right triangle, the formula used would be bh. Both the base and the height of the base are 13.8 inches because they reach the midpoint of the edge of the cube. The area of the base would be (13.8)(138) or 95.22 inches2. The volume of the pyramid ends up being (95.22)(13.8) which is 438.012 inches3. Since all the corners need to be subtracted from the volume of the cube, the volume of the pyramid needs to be multiplied by eight, since there are eight corners that are cut off. So, 438.012(8) equals 3,504.096 inches3. Now the volume of all the corners is subtracted from the volume of the cube, 21,024.576- 3,504.096= 17,520.48. The volume of the cubo using this method is 17,520.48 inches3.

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Figure 3. Right Square Prism with Four Rectangular Pyramids

Figure 4. Inner Prism Net

Figure 5. Top View of Cuboctahedron Another way to look at a cubo is to think about it as a right square prism with four rectangular pyramids attached to its lateral faces (see figure 3). The way to find the volume like this is to find the volume of the prism and the pyramids and just add them together. First, the volume formula for a prism is volume= (area of base)(height of prism), or v= (ab)(hpr). The height of the prism is the same as the height of the cube, which is 27.6 inches (see figure 4). The base of the prism is a square, so the formula is area= (base)(height), or a= bh. The base of the

Boback 5 prism is the same square that was used to find one edge of the cubo. Both the base and the height of it are 13.8 inches since that is the edge that was found. So the area of the base is (13.8 )(13.8 ) which is 380.88 inches2. Now that both the area of the base and the height of the prism are found, the volume of the prism is (380.88)(27.6), or 10,512.288 inches3. There are four pyramids attached to the prism, so the formula needed is v= (ab)(hp). To find the height of this pyramid, just simply look again at the top view of the cube. The square is the prism and the height of one of the triangles is also the height of the pyramid (see figure 5). So, to find the height of that triangle, draw a line the altitude from the corner of the cube to the line opposite it in the triangle. Since the triangle was an isosceles right triangle, it would then also make two isosceles right triangles with 45-45-90 degree triangle properties. Looking at one of these triangles, the hypotenuse is 13.8 inches because it is as long as the midpoint of the cube. One of the legs is 6.9 inches because 13.8 was split in half when the two triangles were made. Using the properties of 45-45-90 degree triangles, the other leg would also be 6.9 inches because the formula for the leg is x, x being the length of the other leg. The area of the base of this pyramid is found using a= bh because the base is a rectangle. The base of this pyramid has the same base and height as one lateral face of the prism it is connected to. So, the base is 27.6 inches and the height is 13.8 inches, making the area of the base (27.6)(13.8 ), or 380.88 inches2. Now that both the area of the base and the height of the pyramid is found, the volume of it can also be found. (380.88 )(6.9 ), which then simplifies down into (5,256.144), or 1,752.048 inches3. Knowing that there are four of those pyramids surrounding the prism, that volume must be multiplied by four. So 1,752.048(4) is 7,008.192 inches3. The volume of the prism plus the volumes of the four rectangular pyramids surrounding it add up to the total volume for the whole cubo. The volume of the prism was 10,512.288 inches3 and the volume of

Boback 6 all four pyramids was 7,008.192 inches3. Those two volumes added together make 17,520.48, making the volume of the cubo 17,520.48 inches3.

Figure 6. Tetrahedron and Regular Square Pyramid

Figure 7. Base of a Tetrahedron

Figure 8. Tetrahedron Net

Figure 9. Base of Tetrahedron with Altitudes

Finally, the cubo could also be looked at as eight tetrahedrons and six regular square pyramids (see figure 6). To find the volume of a cubo this way, the volumes of all eight tetrahedrons and the volumes of all six regular square pyramids would be added together. First, the volume formula for a tetrahedron is the same as the volume formula for a pyramid, volume

Boback 7 = (ab)(hp). The base and the lateral faces of a tetrahedron are all equilateral. The base of it is one of the triangular faces seen on the cubo (see figure 7). Since it is the same triangle, it would be 13.8 inches on each side because that is the length of the edge of the cubo (see figure 8). The height of the triangle is 6.9 inches, as previously found when finding the surface area. So, the area of the base is (13.8 )( ), which then simplifies down into 95.22 inches2. To find

the height of the tetrahedron, the pythagorean theorem is needed. Imagine that there is a triangle, where the height is one leg and the other leg is where the right angle starts and ends when the triangle stops. The hypotenuse is then one edge of the tetrahedron. To find the length of the first leg, multiply the height of the base triangle, 6.9 inches, by . This is because when all the altitudes are drawn into the triangle, their intersection is where the height starts. Since the longer part of the altitude is two-thirds of the length, the length of the whole altitude would be multiplied by to find where all of the altitudes intersect (see figure 9). So, ( ) is 4.6 .

The first leg is 4.6 inches. Since the hypotenuse is one edge of the tetrahedron, it is 13.8 inches. Plug those numbers into the pythagorean theorem, a2+b2=c2, ( b, or the height of the tetrahedron, is ( )( ), or 31.74 )2+ 2=( )2, so

inches. The volume of the tetrahedron is inches3. Since there are eight tetrahedrons in a cubo, (8). So the volume of all eight tetrahedrons is

the volume is multiplied by eight, 31.74 inches3.

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Figure 10. Base of a Regular Square Pyramid Next, the regular square pyramid. The base of the pyramid is a square, which is the same square face that is seen on the cubo (see figure 10). Since it is the same, each side length would be 13.8 inches because one edge of the cubo is 13.8 inches. The area of the base is (13.8 )( 13.8 ), or 380.88 inches2. The pyramid goes halfway through the cube, so its length would be half of the side length of the cube, which is 27.6 inches. This makes the height of the pyramid 13.8 inches. So the volume of this pyramid is ( )( ), or 1,752.048 inches3.

Since there are six regular square pyramids in a cubo, that volume would be multiplied by six. That makes the volume of all six pyramids 1,752.048(6), or 10,512.288 inches3. The volume of the cubo using this method is 253.92 inches3.

All in all, there was no issues finding the surface area or the volume of the cubo using three different methods. The volume found was the exact same no matter what method was used. When thinking about it like a cube with its corners cut off at the midpoints of the edges, the volume was 17,520.48 inches3. The idea that it is a square with four rectangular pyramids attached to its lateral faces, the volume was also 17,520.48 inches3. Finally, when thinking about

Boback 9 it like eight tetrahedrons and six regular square pyramids, the volume was 253.92 +10,512.288 inches3, which is also 17,520.48 inches3.