The Cuboctahedron

Ian Barber/John Buiteweg

GAT 9C
Mr. Scot Acre
4 March 2015

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So, there might be one really big question that is going through peoples heads
right now what is a cuboctahedron? Well, a cuboctahedron is a three dimensional
shape whose faces consist of 6 squares and 8 equilateral triangles. It is classified as an
Archimedean solid, meaning that the shape is composed of two or more regular
polygons meeting at identical vertices unlike Platonic Solids, which only have one
regular polygon that meet at each vertex.
The cuboctahedron has 12 vertices with two triangles and two squares meeting
at each vertex and 24 edges, each of which separate a triangle from a square. All of the
triangles are congruent and all of the squares are congruent.
Now the cuboctahedron, or cubo which it is sometimes called, looks very similar
to a cube. Well, thats because it is very similar to the cube. Basically, the cubo is a
cube except the corners are cut off from the cube as seen below where the cubo is the
shape that is inside of the cube. Thats where the cubo in cuboctahedron is from.

Figure 1. Cubo in a Cube

Figure 1, above shows the cuboctahedron inside of a cube.

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So, where can a cuboctahedron be seen in life in the 21 st century? Well, besides
being an assignment that a certain geometry teacher (looking at you Mr. Acre) would
give you for an assessment grade, it can be seen in many places that might be
surprising. First off, it can be seen as sculptures at cities sometimes such as in figure 2
on the next page.
Now, since the cuboctahedron is a semi-regular 3-dimensional shape, it may
seem very hard to figure out the volume and surface area. Well, its not. There are three
different ways to find the volume of a cuboctahedron. This paper will help people
understand how different formulas of simple 3 dimensional shapes will help find the
area of the cuboctahedron using those 3 methods, in addition to how to find the surface
area of a cuboctahedron. A cuboctahedron with a side length of 15.6 units has a surface
area of 730.08+243.362 units2 and a volume of 3,163.68 units3.

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Hardin, Eric . Cuboctahedron. 2008. Photograph. n.p. Web. 3 Mar 2015.

<http://1sand0s.deviantart.com/art/Cuboctahedron-62862142>.
Figure 2. Real World
Figure 2, above, shows a modern sculpture of a cuboctahedron in the city of San
Francisco Chinatown.
The most crucial part of finding the volume and total surface area of a cubo is to
find the actual side length of the cubo. The length of the side of the square is given,
which in this case is 15.6 units. Now one length of the a triangles leg is half of the side
length of the square. The given length for the square is 15.6 units. Half of that length is
15.6* or 7.8 units. In a 45-45-90 triangle, two of the legs of the triangle are congruent,
so the two lengths of the two legs of the triangle are 7.8 units. Now using this formula:
x+ x=h where x is the length of the legs and h is the hypotenuse of the triangle. It is
then simplified down to 2x = h, or 2(7.8)= h. Next, you square root both sides to the
equation so it becomes: 2x= h, or 2 (7.8)= h. Finally, the equation would simplify

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down to x2=h which in this case is 7.82=h. The hypotenuse is the length of the cubos
sides, and because all of the sides are congruent, all the cubos side lengths would
equal to 7.82 units. Therefore, the length of one side for the cubo is 7.82 units.

Figure 3: Finding the Area and Surface Area of the Triangle

Figure 3, above, shows the measurements of all the sides of the cubos triangle.
The next step is finding the surface area of the cuboctahedron, starting with the
triangular faces. To find the height and the base of a triangular face of the cubo, fill in
what is already known, which is the side length for all of the sides of the triangle, 7.8
units. Now since all sides are equal to each other, they form an equilateral triangle. To
find the height, draw a straight line down the middle of the triangle to make the two 3060-90 triangles. To find the height of a 30-60-90 triangle, you need to find out what the
measure is of the leg that is cut in half by the height, which is algebraically known as a.
The given side is the hypotenuse, algebraically known as 2a. You divide the

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hypotenuse, 7.82, by 2 to get a measure of 3.92 units for the a value. The formula to
find the height of the triangle is x+a= (2a) in which x equals the height. When you plug
in the numbers, this becomes x+(3.92)= (2[3.92]). Next, simplify to get x+ a= 4a
which would be x+3.9=4(3.9). Next, subtract a to get x by itself to get: x=3a which
would be: x= 3(3.92). Then square root both sides to get: x=3a which would be: x=
3 (3.9). The whole equation is then simplified to x=a3 which in this case x= 3.92
(3) which is simplified down to 3.96 units. So the height of the triangle face of the
cubo is 3.96 units. To find the area of the triangle, multiply the base, 7.82 units, by the
height, which is 3.96, by to get 15.212 units. The 12 can be simplified down to
4*3 which can be simplified down even further to get 23. It then becomes 15.2*23.
The area of a triangular face on the cubo is 30.423 units
Now for finding the squares surface area, which is debatably the easiest part.
Why is that so? Well, since the length of a side of the cubo is already known, and all of
the sides of the cubo are congruent, and all of the squares sides are congruent, no
measurements need to be found. The base for the square face of a cubo is 7.82 units
and the height for a square face for the cubo is also 7.82 units. To find the area of the
square multiply 7.82 by 7.82 to get 60.844. 4 can be simplified down to 2 so it
becomes 60.84*2 which would equal to 121.68 units.
To get the surface area, multiply the area of the squares by 6 because there are
six squares in the cubo. Then multiply the area of the triangular faces by 8 because
there are eight triangular faces on the cubo. Finally, add the two areas together to get
the surface area of the cubo. So, when 121.68 is multiplied by 6 it becomes 730.08.

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When 30.423 is multiplied by 8, it becomes 243.363. The surface area is then

730.08+243.363 units.

Figure 4. Surface Area and Side Lengths of the Square

Figure 4, above, shows the measurements of all the sides of the cubos square.

Figure 5. Case 1 Pyramid Cut from the Side of the Cube

Figure 5, above, shows the corner of the cubo that is cut out when finding the
volume of the cuboctahedron in case 1.

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For the 1st case to finding the volume and total surface area of the
cuboctahedron, you find the dimensions of a corner pyramid cut off the cube, as shown
darkened above. First, since the base of the pyramids lengths are the same and that
they form a face for the cubo, the lengths for the all the sides of the base are 7.82 units
as shown highlighted in green in Figure 6 below. The lateral faces of the pyramid are
right triangles, which in this case are also 45-45-90 triangles, are highlighted in red. The
7.82 side of the triangle is the a2 side, the length and height of the triangle, or a, is
still unknown. Take out the 2 from the length of the cubo to find that the length and the
height of the lateral faces are 7.8 units. Follow the area formula for triangles to get the
area of the right triangles, which is A= 1/2(7.8) (7.8), which equals 30.42 units. Then,
since the 60-60-60 triangle is the same triangle used to find the surface area of the cubo
on pages 4 and 5, the area is known to be 30.423 units.

Figure 6. Case 1 Pyramid Cut from the Cube

Figure 6, above, shows the lengths of all the sides of the corner pyramid.

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Using one of the isosceles right triangles as the base, the height of the pyramid
becomes 7.8 units long. To find the volume of the pyramid, use the formula V=A base*H,
where V is the volume of the pyramid, Abase is the area of the pyramids base, and H is
the pyramids height. When the numbers are plugged in, it becomes A=1/3 (7.8) (7.8)
(1/2) (7.8). That simplified finds the corner pyramids volume, 179.092 units.
There are still two more steps to find the volume of the cubo using this method.
First, multiply the volume of the corner pyramid by 8 because all 8 corners of the cube
are being cut out. 179.092*8= 632.736 units. The final step is to subtract the volume of
all 8 pyramids by the volume of the cube. Now, the volume formula for a cube is V=a,
where a is the side length of the cube. The length of this cube is 15.6 units, which was
given to us at the beginning. When you plug in, the formula becomes V=15.6. The
volume for the cube is 3796.416 units. Now subtract the 3796.416 units by the
632.736 units found earlier to get the volume for the cubo. The volume of the cubo is
3163.68 units.
The second way to find the volume of a cubo is to find the volume of an inner
rectangular prism and 4 rectangular pyramids, as shown below.

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Figure 7. Case 2: finding the volume of the cubo by combining a rectangular prism and
4 rectangular pyramids.
Figure 7, above, shows the 2 parts of the cubo used to find the volume in case 2.
To find the volume of the prism, the things that are needed are the height of the
prism, shown as the a next to the prism, and the base and height of the prisms base,
shown as b.
The base and the height of the base of the prism are known from finding the
surface area on page 5, 7.82 units for both. The height of the prism is the same length
of the height of the giant overall cube, 15.6 units. The volume formula for a prism is
V=Abase*H, where V is the prisms volume, Abase is the area of the base, and H is the
prisms height. The volume formula for this equation would be: V=(7.82)*(7.82)*(15.6)
which would be 1,898.208 units3. So the volume for the prism is 1,898.208units 3.
The next thing to do to find the volume of the cubo in case two is to find the
volume of the rectangular pyramid. Now the pyramids base area can be found due to

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the length of the base being the same length as the base of the prism, which is 7.82
units. The height of the pyramids base is 15.6 units, the same as the prisms height.
But, there is still one thing unknown , the height of the pyramid! Well, to find the height,
use the pythagorean theorem, which is: a2+b2=c2 where the height, b, is trying to be
found. First, use the face length 7.8 as c, which was found by cutting 15.6 in half and
using the properties of a 45-45-90 triangle.This will act as the hypotenuse for finding the
height of the pyramid. Now create a triangle from the apex of the pyramid to the base to
the side. To find a, draw a line from the 15.6 unit long side to the center of the rectangle.
This is half of 7.82 units, or 3.92 units. Now that all of that is known, plug the two
numbers into the pythagorean theorem in their designated places. The equation is now
3.922+b2=7.82. The equation is then simplified down to 30.42+x2=60.84. The reason
why 3.922 is 30.42 is because when 3.9 is squared, it becomes 15.21 and when 2 is
squared, it becomes 4 which is simplified down to 2. It becomes 15.21*2 which equals
30.42 units. So, subtract 30.42 units from 60.84 units to get 30.42 units. The equation is
simplified down to: x2= 30.42 units. To get x by itself, square root both sides to get:
x=30.42. The height of the pyramid is 30.42 units.
To find the slant height of the 60-60-60 triangle, take 7.8 2 and 30.422 and add
them together to get the height of the sides of the lateral faces. So, when 7.8 is
squared, it becomes 60.84 units and when when 30.42 is squared, the square root
sign is cancelled out, so it becomes 30.42 units. Add the two numbers together to get
x2=91.26 units. Square root both sides to get x by itself and the slant height is found to
be 91.26 units.

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To find the volume of the pyramid, use the volume formula for pyramids, which is
V= Abase*H. Since the area of the base is already known (15.6*7.82) and the height of
the pyramid is also known (30.42) plug them in to get V=(15.6)(7.82)(30.42).
When 30.42 is multiplied by 7.82 it becomes 7.860.84 in which the 60.84 can be
square rooted to become 7.8 units, so 7.860.84 is just simply 7.8 2 units, which makes
60.84 units. The equation should now be V= (15.6)(60.84). When 15.6 and 60.84 are
multiplied, they make 949.104 units3, but it still to be divided by 3 or multiplied by , so
the volume for the rectangular pyramid is 316.368 units 3. Its not done yet, however,
because it still has to be multiplied by four because four of the rectangular pyramids are
added to the lateral faces to the prism to form the cuboctahedron. So when 316.368
units3 is multiplied by 4 the volume of the four pyramids is 1265.472 units 3.
After the volume of the 4 pyramids is found, add that to the volume of the inner
prism to get the total volume of the cubo. So, when 1,898.208 units 3 gets added to
1,265.472 units3, the total volume of the cuboctahedron is 3,163.68 units 3, which is the
same volume for the cubo as found in case one showing that case two is also a way to
find the volume of the cuboctahedron.
Finally, the third case to find the volume of the cuboctahedron is to find the
volume of 8 tetrahedrons and 6 pyramids with a square base.
First, to find the sides and volume of the tetrahedron, plug in first what is already
known, which is the base length of the base of the tetrahedron, which is the side of the
cuboctahedron, 7.82 units. To find the height of the triangle, it is turned into a 30-60-90
triangle so the height is 3.66 units for the base, the same as what is found on page 4

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and 5. To find the height of the tetrahedron, draw a line from the topmost point of the
tetrahedron until it reaches the base at a 90 degree angle. The line that was just drawn
in divides the height of the base into and into of the original base height. So, to find
that part of the bases height multiply the height of the base, 3.96 units by which
is the same thing as dividing it by three to get 1.36 units. Now since all of the faces for
a tetrahedron are congruent, the height for the lateral faces are the same as the height
of the base. Within tetrahedrons, a triangle can be made from the height of the lateral
face, the of the base height, and the height of the pyramid. Plug those numbers into
the pythagorean theorem so it becomes 1.36 2+b2=3.962 where the height of the
tetrahedron is represented as b. First, simplify what is already given.When 6 is
squared, it becomes36 which is the same thing as 6. So after the number in front of 6
is squared, multiply that number by 6 to get the whole answer, and the equation
becomes: 10.14+b2=91.26. Now subtract 10.14 from 91.26 to get b 2= 81.12. To get b by
itself, square root both sides so that b=81.12. The height of the tetrahedron is 81.12
units. Now plug in the numbers into the volume formula for pyramid which would
become: V=Abase*H which would become: V=(7.82)(3.96)(.5)(81.12). When the
numbers are multiplied together, they make 30.42 units 3 and when the numbers that are
being square rooted are multiplied, they make 973.44 units 3 so when added together,
they make 30.42973.44 units3. Divide the number by 2 or multiply by to get
15.21973.44 units3, then divide by three, or multiply by to get 5.07973.44 units 3.
Simplify 973.44 to make 31.2 and multiply it by 5.07 to get the volume of the
tetrahedron. The volume of the tetrahedron is 158.184 units 3.

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Figure 8. Tetrahedron Side Lengths.

Figure 8, above, shows all the measurements used in finding the volume of the
tetrahedron.
Now to find the lengths and sides of the square pyramid. First find the lengths of
the sides of the base, which is a square meaning that all of the sides are congruent.
Remember that the side length for the cubo is 7.82 units, so the base and height of the
square are both 7.82 units. The lateral faces that are created from the base are four
60-60-60 triangles with all of their sides being 7.82 units. To find the height of the
lateral faces, draw a perpendicular line from the top of the triangle down to its base.
There are two 30-60-90 triangles for every lateral face. The height is the side opposite
of the 60 angle, which is the a3. First divide the base length of the 60-60-60 triangle,
7.82 units to get 3.92 units and multiply it by 3 to get the height of the lateral faces to
be 3.96 units.

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To start to find the height of the pyramid, create a line from one of the sides of the
base to the center of the pyramid. Since all side lengths are equal in a square, the line
to the center is half of the length of the sides, so divide 7.82 by 2 to get 3.92. Just like
the tetrahedron, create a triangle from the height of one of the lateral faces, the height
of the pyramid, and the length from the center of the pyramid to one of the sides of the
base. Height is represented as b, the height of the lateral face is represented as c, and
the length from one side of the base to the center is represented as a. So the equation
is now 3.922+b2=3.96, and when simplified becomes 30.42+b 2=91.26. Now subtract
30.42 from 91.26 to get 60.84. The equation should be simplified down to b 2=60.84. To
get b by itself, square root both sides so that b=60.84 can be simplified down to 7.8 so
b=7.8 units. The height of the square pyramid is 7.8 units.

Figure 9. Square Pyramid Side Lengths:

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Figure 9, above, shows all the measurements used in finding the volume of the
square pyramid.
To find the volume of the pyramid, the length and width of the base must be
known, which are both 7.82 units. The height of the pyramid must be known, which is
7.8, so the equation would be: V=(7.82)(7.82)(7.8). It is then simplified to:
V=(1898.208), then divide by three to get the volume, in which V=316.68 units 3.
To find the total volume of the cuboctahedron, take the volume of the
tetrahedron, which is 158.184 units and multiply it by 8 because it takes 8 tetrahedrons
to make the triangular faces of the cubo. The volume of the tetrahedrons is 1,265.472
units3. Then multiply the square pyramids volume, which is 316.368 units 3, by 6 due to
the base of the pyramid being a square and the cubo has 6 square faces. The volume
of the 6 square pyramids is 1,898.208 units3. Now add both of the volumes together to
get the total volume. Add 1,265.472 units3 and 1,898.208 units3 to get 3,163.68 units3,
the volume of the cuboctahedron.
For all three cases, the volume for the cuboctahedron has been 3,163.68 units 3.
This shows that no matter how you divide up the cuboctahedron, you always will find
the same volume of it.
In conclusion, the cuboctahedron is a very compelling object, with it having more
than one regular polygon for faces and the different cases that can be used to find the
volume of it. The volume can be found in 3 ways - cutting out 8 corner pyramids of a
cube, dividing the cubo into 1 rectangular prism and 4 rectangular pyramids, and
dividing the cubo into 8 tetrahedrons and 6 square pyramids. All 3 methods will give you

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the same volume as you are just finding the volume of the same shape in 3 different
ways. The surface area can be found by adding up all the sides of the cubo. When
working on this project, the only problem encountered was not being able to meet up
and work together in person, so alternate methods had to be used to communicate.