The Cuboctahedron

Elizabeth Evers and Jillian Maceroni

GAT 9C

Scott Acre

4th March, 2015

 The Cuboctahedron

A cuboctahedron is a uniform polyhedron or an Archimedean solid with eight

equilateral triangular faces and six square faces. A uniform polyhedron is a three-

dimensional solid with regular polygons as faces and an Archimedean solid is a

symmetric, semi-regular convex polyhedron composed of two or more types of regular

polygons meeting at identical vertices. It can be looked at as a cube with its corners cut

off at each midpoint, composed of six square pyramids and eight tetrahedrons attached

to the lateral faces of the square pyramids or one right square prism and four

rectangular pyramids attached to its lateral faces. The entire shape has fourteen faces,

twelve vertices and twenty-four edges. Four faces of the cuboctahedron come together

to form a vertex. There are two triangular faces and two square faces that met at a

common vertex. In this paper, we will explore how to find the surface area and volume

along with the dimensions of the nets.

There are many ways to find the surface area and the side lengths of a

cuboctahedron. You can find the surface area by adding the areas of all the faces of a

shape. For our cuboctahedron we were assigned 18 cm for the side of a cube.

First, you have to find the lengths of the triangular faces and square faces.

Figure 1. The Dimensions of the 18cm Cube

To do this, you take a face from the regular cube and draw a square that connects at the

midpoints. Next, you would take half of 18 to get 9 because the square inside the face

of the cube forms four right triangles at the edges. Now that you have the two lengths of

the right triangles legs which are 9, you can use 45- 45- 90 triangle congruency to

find the length of the hypotenuse, which is 9 2 cm. Therefore, this is the length of the

square face on cuboctahedron. In the shape, the square and triangular faces met at

common edges, this means that the triangular faces and the square faces have the

same lengths of 9 2 cm. Now you must find the areas of the faces. To find the area of

the squares, use the formula Area of Square = (base)(height) or As = BH. The base and

the height are both 9 2 cm. When you solve you should get 162 cm 2. Then multiply 162

by 6 because there are a total of six square faces in the cuboctahedron. The surface

area of all the square faces is 972 cm 2. To find the area of the triangles, use the formula

Area of Triangle = 1/2(base)(height) or At = 1/2 BH. First, draw in the height line in your

triangle. The height drawn in, creates a 30 - 60 - 90 triangle. When you use 30 - 60

- 90 triangle congruency, you get the height of the triangle to be 4.5 6 cm.

92
4.56

Figure 2. The Dimensions of the equilateral Triangular Face

Now plug the base and the height into the formula which would be At = 1/2 (9 2)(4.5

6). After solving the previously stated equation which would be 20.25 12, multiply it by

8 to find the area of all the triangular faces, to get an area of 162 12 cm 2. The final step
to find the total surface area is to add the area of the square and triangular faces to get

a total of 972 + 162 12 cm2.

There are multiple ways to find the volume of a cuboctahedron. We will be

explaining three different methods to find it. One way is to take the volume of eight

corner pieces and subtract it from the volume of the cube. To find the dimensions of a

corner piece, use the equilateral triangular face with the side lengths of 9 2 cm.

Since the triangle meets at the midpoint of the cube, the lateral edge would be half of 18

cm which is 9 cm.

Figure 3. A Cube with the Corner Piece Intact

When you are finding the volume, use the right triangle as the base to get the height of

the pyramid as 9 cm.

Figure 4. 3-D Replication of the corner Piece and its Dimensions.

The volume formula for any pyramid is Volume of Pyramid = 1/3 (Area of base)(Height

of pyramid) or Vp = 1/3 AbHp. When you plug all of the measurements in to this formula,

you get Vp = 1/3 (1/2*9*9)(9). The answer you should get is 121.5 cm 3, multiply your

answer by 8 because there are 8 pyramids total. The total volume of the pyramids is

972 cm3. To find the volume of the cube, you use the formula, Volume of Prism = (Area

of base)(Height of pyramid) or Vpr = AbHpr. Plug in (18)(18)(18) = Vpr and you should get

5,832 cm3. Now you have to subtract the volume of the entire cube from the volume of

all the pyramids. When you subtract 5,832 972, the answer for the volume of the

cuboctahedron should 4,860 cm3.

The second way to fine the volume of a cuboctahedron is to find the volume of a

right square prism and the volumes of 4 rectangular pyramids. To find the dimensions of

the inner prism the height of the cube is the same as the height prism which is 18 cm.

The base of the prism is the square face of the cuboctahedron which has a length and

height of 9 2 cm.

Figure 5. The Dimensions of the Right Square Prism

Now you have to find the dimensions of the rectangular pyramid. The base of the

pyramid has the same dimensions as the lateral faces of the prism because the bases

of the pyramid attach to the lateral faces of the prism to form the cuboctaherdron.
 92
4.56

18

Figure 6. How the Pyramid and the Prism Attach

Therefore the base of the pyramid is 18 cm by 92 cm. The lateral edges of the pyramid

are the same lengths of the equilateral triangular faces of 9 2 cm because 2 of the

lateral faces of the pyramid are the triangular faces of the cuboctahedron. The last step

for finding the dimensions of the pyramid is to find the height of it. Now you can use the

Pythagorean Theorem to fine the height of the pyramid. You have already found the

slant height of one of the lateral faces above which is 4.5 6. The height of the pyramid

cuts the length of the base in half which would be 9 cm. You can use the slant height as

the hypotenuse and half the length of the base as one of the legs. The height of the

pyramid would be the second leg that you are trying to find. When you plug in 9 cm and

4.5 6 cm into the Pythagorean Theorem a2 + b2 = c2 it would be 92 + b2 = (4.5 6)2.

When you simplify that equation down you get the height as 4.5 2 cm.

Figure 6. The Height and Slant Height of the Pyramid

Now you have found all the dimensions of the prism and pyramids you can find the total

volume of the cuboctahedron. The first step to finding the volume of the cubocathedron

is finding the volume of the square prism. You can use the formula Volume of Prism =

(Area of Base)(Height of Prism) or vpr =Abhpr to do so. When you substitute 92 cm for

the height and length of the base and 18 cm for the height of the prism you should get

2,916 cm3 for the volume of the prism. Next, you have to find the volume of the

rectangular pyramids. You have to use the volume formula for pyramids which is

Volume of Pyramid = 1/3 (Area of Base)(Height Prism) or V p = 1/3 Abhp. Then you can

substitute everything thing in to look like Vp = 1/3 (18*92)(4.5 2) and the volume of 1

pyramid should be 486 cm3. You are going to have to multiply the volume of 1 pyramid

by 4 because each pyramid is attached to 1 of the 4 lateral faces of the prism. When

you do that you should get the total volume for the 4 pyramids to be 1,944 cm 3. Lastly,

you have to add the volume of the prism which is 2,916 cm 3 and the volume of the

pyramids which is 1,944 cm3 to get the total volume for the cubocathedron as 4,860

cm3.

The last way to find the volume of the cuboctahedron is by finding the volumes 8

tetrahedrons and 6 square pyramids. First, you must find the dimensions of the

tetrahedron. Since the base of the tetrahedron is the as the triangular face of the

cuboctahedron, then all the faces have the same lateral edges with a measurement of 9

2 cm. Next you must find the height of the tetrahedron. To do so, use the Pythagorean

Theorem which is a2 + b2 = c2. You already found the slant height of the triangular face

in the second paragraph which is 4.5 6 cm. This will used as the hypotenuse in the

formula. Now you need to find the first leg which in any triangle is a third of the height of
the base. The height of the base is 4.5 6 and to get the first legs length divide 4.5 6

by 3. The first legs length would be 1.5 6. The equation you get when you substitute all

the numbers in is (1.5 6)2 + b2 = (4.5 6)2. The height of pyramid is 6 3.

Figure 7. The Height and Lateral Edges of the Tetrahedron

Next, you must find the dimensions of the square pyramid. The base of the pyramid is

the also same shape and has the same lengths as he square face of the

cuboctahedron, meaning the lengths of the base would 9 2 cm. The last step in finding

the dimensions, is calculating the height of the square pyramid. Again you would use

the Pythagorean Theorem which is a2 + b2 = c2.The slant height would be the same as

the tetrahedron which 4.5 6 because all lateral face of the tetrahedron and the square

pyramid attach together.

Figure 8. How the Tetrahedron and Square Pyramid Fit Together

Now, to find the first leg of your right triangle, you have to take half the length of the

base which 4.5 2 because the height meets at the midpoint of the square base. Now,
you can substitute these numbers into the formula a 2 + b2 = c2 so the equation you will

get, is (4.5 2)2 + b2 = (4.5 6)2. When you solve you this equation, the height should be

9 cm.

Figure 9.The Height and the Lengths of the Base of the Square Pyramid

Once you have found the dimensions of the tetrahedrons and the square pyramids, you

can move on to finding the volumes of them. To find the volumes of the tetrahedron, use

the formula Volume or Pyramid = 1/3 (Area of base)(Height of Pyramid) or V p = 1/3 AbHp.

You have to substitute the length and height of the base which is 9 2 cm and 4.5 6 cm

respectively and the height of the pyramid which is 6 3 cm. When you solve the

equation you should get the volume of 1 tetrahedron to be 243 cm 3. You then have to

multiply the volume of 1 tetrahedron which is 243 by 8, to get the volume of all

tetrahedron to 1,944 cm3. Next, you are going to have to find the volume of the square

pyramids. Use the same volume formula as stated previously. Substitute the dimensions

of the base which is 9 2 cm by 9 2 cm and the height of the pyramid which is 9 cm.

When you solve this equation, you should get is a volume of 496 cm 3. Now you have to

multiply the volume of one pyramid which is 496 cm 3 by 6 to account for all the square

pyramids in the cuboctahedron. The volume of all square pyramids is 2,916 cm 3. Finally

you have to add the volume of all tetrahedron which 1,944 cm 3 and the volume of all

square pyramids which 2,916 cm3, to get a total volume of 4860 cm 3.

 In conclusion, the surface area for our cuboctahedron with the height of 18 cm

was 972 + 162 12 units and the volume, which was found 3 different ways, was 4860

cm3. The 3 different ways we used to find to find the volume was having a cube who

corners have been cut off at the midpoint, are right square prism with 4 rectangular

pyramids attached at its lateral faces and 8 tetrahedrons and 6 square pyramids. The

challenges we encountered while creating the nets was finding the correct length of the

lateral edges for the rectangular pyramid. We forget the 2. Another problem we faced

was constructing the pieces with the right dimension. Our corner piece, at first did not

have 90 triangular faces. This meant that the corner was not matching up with the base

and we had to reconstruct it. The next predicament we ran into was for our extra-credit

cuboctahedron. Half of the images we printed out did not fit correctly onto the square

faces. Meaning that we had to reprint them out and re-glue them to the square faces.

The last difficultly we faced was having too small of paper to construct our nets on. We

had to draw the shapes separately and tape them together. Other than these few minor

hiccups we faced, the rest of the project was smooth sailing from there.