Encyclopedia of Polyhedra By George W. Hart … and other geometric gems

It’s time to revisit the work of other polyhedra enthusiasts. Of particular note (having crossed my digital path again recently) is George W. Hart who has shared some excellent resources along these lines (faces, vertices, etc.) for decades. Here’s one gold mine to explore: Virtual Polyhedra: The Encyclopedia of Polyhedra By George W. Hart. Here is part of the table of contents and highly recommended if you want to explore the genres and categories of polyhedra; lots of great imagery, rotatable 3D models (rotate them with your mouse), facts and details:

• Platonic Solids (Regular Convex Polyhedra) Background List of models
• Kepler-Poinsot Polyhedra (Regular NonConvex Polyhedra)Background List of models
• Archimedean Polyhedra (Semi-Regular Convex Polyhedra) Background List of models
• Prisms and Anti-Prisms Background List of models
• Archimedean Duals Background List of models
• Quasi-Regular Polyhedra Background List of Models
• Johnson Solids (the remaining convex polyhedra with regular faces) Background List of models
• Pyramids, Dipyramids, and Trapezohedra Background List of models
• Compound Polyhedra — Introduction Background List of models
• Stellated Polyhedra — Introduction Background List of models
• Compounds of Cubes Background List of models
• Convex Deltahedra Background List of models
• Zonohedra Background List of models
• Uniform Polyhedra Background List of models
• Uniform Compounds of Uniform Polyhedra Background List of models
• Stellations of the Icosahedron Background List of models
• Stellations of the Rhombic Triacontahedron Background List of models

Perhaps the most well-known and ubiquitous polyhedral shapes have fold-up models (and related patterns) for the first 3 categories above in Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook (SGDS pages 196-220) and also on this website for the 5 Platonic Solids and 13 Archimedean Solids as well as Illustrations of Platonic And Archimedean Solids, Math Tables for Platonic And Archimedean Solids (and much more about polyhedra on this website.

If you exhaust this generous resource (or somehow overlook a few gems) here are more of his contributions – the videos are particularly helpful if you want to replicate his constructions:

• The Pavilion of Polyhedreality
• George’s Instagram page with some excellent 3D geometric sculptures
• Mathematical Impressions: The Golden Ratio (short video)
• Hyperboloids (short video)
• Little Zonohedral Library (short video; my favorite of these which also features our mutual friend Russell Towle who showed me his 3D zonohedral models (such as Rhombic Spirallohedra)
  years ago in Dutch Flat, California)
• Ceci n’est pas une lampe (fun, clever, short video)
• Birdland (another clever short video)
• Seven Slide-Together Constructions (another interesting short video)
• … and MANY more!