by Marcus Engel
AniKa - Animated Kaleidocycles
To see the applet below you must use the Chrome browser with its CheerpJ extension.
(you must also activate the extension with the CheerpJ icon on the right in the menu bar)
Navigation within the geometry viewer
| To rotate | drag with left mouse button |
| To scale | press "s" and drag with left mouse button |
| To toggle on/off z-Buffer | SHIFT-z (try this, if animation is slow) |
| To get more options | right mouse click (image configuration, new display ...) |
To add a texture (drawing by Escher) to the faces first stop a possible animation and choose one of the two textures; then you may restart the animation. | |
Some configurations worth mentioning
Always assume Aperture1 = Aperture2 and Symmetry1 = Symmetry2.
| Order | 180°-Twists | Aperture | Symmetry | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | all faces are equivalent | |||
| 0 | all faces are right-angled | |||
| even | maximum | "normal" (i.e. traditional) kaleidocycles with strong rotational symmetry | ||
| even | maximum | 1 | all faces are equivalent and isosceles
(includes kaleidocycles consisting of regular tetrahedra (except for Order=6)) | |
| even | maximum | 1 | 1 | the "eye" in the middle of the kaleidocycle closes for time =0, =0.25, =0.5, =0.75 |
| 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | This one is called "Der umstülpbare Würfel (The eversible cube) and is due to Paul Schatz. Set time to 0.1 to see the connection to the cube. |
To learn more about the kaleidocycles you can consult the theory (or the translation in French: théorie).
In the second tab of the control panel (Net Info) gives you the information needed to construct the net of one tetrahedron corresponding to your choice of parameters. You have to work a little more to achieve the complete net of the kaleidocycle.
Three complete nets are also provided for your convenience: regular kaleidocycle of order 8, closed kaleidocycle of order 6 and eversible cube (Schatz cube): rectangular kaleidocycle of order 6 and two bolts to complete the cube.
The above applet is based on JavaView, a 3D geometry viewer and numerical software library written in Java.
