# Truncated icosahedron on the Stanford University campus **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 23, 2022, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981 "2022-12-23T04:52:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/1 "2022-12-23T04:52:46Z")
On the Stanford University campus there’s a large geometric design / structure that they call “the soccer ball”, or “the buckey ball”. There are three of them arranged concentrically — the smallest inside the medium one inside the largest. It is simple, yet also complex, and I like looking at it when I’m there (I was there today). Here are some pictures of it. [![](https://i.imgur.com/UL0uSnU.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/UL0uSnU.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/uyTv7Y3.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/uyTv7Y3.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/eKFbR7d.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/eKFbR7d.jpeg) It’s a bit tantalizing, isn’t it? Once as I was taking pictures a random guy said to me, you should see it at night when it’s lit up, it’s really beautiful. At night the colors change. So here it is in all its glory and colors and lights at night. [![](https://i.imgur.com/QKEBibY.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/QKEBibY.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/cMSGREy.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/cMSGREy.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/1pjaCoc.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/1pjaCoc.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/s3fhdSv.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/s3fhdSv.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/G2EICmn.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/G2EICmn.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/GpN3Anr.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/GpN3Anr.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/RERbCEd.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/RERbCEd.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/sdNQah3.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/sdNQah3.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/9q0TCuz.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/9q0TCuz.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/BdfnyFR.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/BdfnyFR.jpeg) Note the reflections off of the first floor windows: [![](https://i.imgur.com/iwIeRTS.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/iwIeRTS.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/M14mobb.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/M14mobb.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/Oqpgvzg.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/Oqpgvzg.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/W9Stri6.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/W9Stri6.jpeg) I include several pictures because I think it’s really pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/2 "2022-12-23T04:53:27Z")
Per Wiki, the truncated icosahedron is an Archimedean solid, one of 13 convex isogonal nonprismatic solids whose 32 faces are two or more types of regular polygons. It is the only one of these shapes that does not contain triangles or squares. In general usage, the degree of truncation is assumed to be uniform unless specified. It has 12 regular pentagonal faces, 20 regular hexagonal faces, 60 vertices and 90 edges. It is the Goldberg polyhedron GPV\_(1,1) or {5+,3}\_1,1, containing pentagonal and hexagonal faces. This geometry is associated with footballs (soccer balls) typically patterned with white hexagons and black pentagons. Geodesic domes such as those whose architecture Buckminster Fuller pioneered are often based on this structure. It also corresponds to the geometry of the fullerene C60 (“buckyball”) molecule. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/3 "2022-12-23T04:56:51Z")
Very nice, thanks for giving us all of the night time pics as well. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/4 "2022-12-23T05:19:38Z")
Cool! That reminded me of a guy I knew who said of college requirements, “I don’t want to be well-rounded; I want to be a dodecahedron.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/5 "2022-12-23T12:51:49Z")
Thanks for sharing. That’s great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/6 "2022-12-23T14:41:43Z")
Very cool pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/7 "2022-12-23T15:50:30Z")
The nesting is reminiscent of some sort of four-dimensional structure, though I don’t think there’s any particular hypersolid that would correspond to that. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/8 "2022-12-23T16:01:27Z")
So multi-faceted? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/9 "2022-12-23T16:22:55Z")
Way cool! Thanks for those pictures! 🕶 * * * * * * > [@Bullitt](#): > > …convex isogonal nonprismatic solids… My next screen name. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/10 "2022-12-23T16:31:29Z")
I was thinking how much better that thing would look with an attractive vining plant clambering over it. Maybe a wisteria… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/11 "2022-12-23T16:46:28Z")
Personally, I prefer the Catalan solids. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/12 "2022-12-23T16:56:40Z")
If you are trying to find it, it’s in front of the new Stanford Hospital. Installed in 2019. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/13 "2022-12-23T21:09:08Z")
Fun fact: If a polyhedron is made up entirely of pentagons and hexagons, then the number of pentagons is exactly 12. Starting with a dodecahedron with 12 pentagons and no hexagons. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truncated-icosahedron-on-the-stanford-university-campus/976981/14 "2022-12-23T21:32:12Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If you are trying to find it, it’s in front of the new Stanford Hospital. Installed in 2019. Thanks. Yeah, simple paste these coordinates into your map and change to satellite view to see it: 37.434121, -122.176736 [![](https://i.imgur.com/DTSX98F.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/DTSX98F.jpg)