Open and Closed Kaleidoscopes

open polyhedron

closed polyhedron

solid number

6

solid

net

truncation

0.2

This Demonstration shows two types of kaleidoscopes. The first set consists of four kaleidoscopes based on "open" prismatic polyhedra, without a base or top. The second set consists of prisms and tetrahedra. Nets of polyhedra are shown so that you can build kaleidoscopes using metallic reflecting foil. Since the foil is inside the polyhedron, there is a viewing hole formed as the truncation of one vertex of the original polyhedron.