7 Assorted Sphere Designs | Tutorial | 480 to 1440 Neodymium Magnetic Balls

This is my 100th published video, and my 99th magnet shape video (as one of my older ones was of an LED watch collection). A big thank you to everyone who has viewed, liked, and commented on my channel and videos over the years 😀
This is my longest ever video, an all-in-one guide to building 7 of my favourite different spheres that I have discovered working with neodymium magnetic balls. The spheres are all related by icosahedral geometry, that is, variations on the 12 vertices and 20 faces of an icosahedron, yet they look quite distinct from one another. There are a range of numbers of magnetic balls required, to suit different sized magnet collections. Spheres 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 appear in my other videos as hemispheres in a cluster of 12, and sphere 3 has appeared in my Expanded Perfect Sphere video, but not how to build it. All subunits should be built with the same polarity (that is, with the same direction of winding from the same end of the same line of magnets), except where noted below.

Also - turn on subtitles for this video to see added onscreen details of how to build each shape.

1) Hollow Icosidodecahedron Sphere - 480 balls 0:20
20 interlocked double layered triangle/hex pieces required, of 12 × 2 = 24 balls each.
See here for my tutorial video using this design in a bubble cluster of 12:
   • Dodecahedral Bubble Cluster | Tutoria...  

2) Hexagon/Triangle Duo Sphere - 720 balls 1:15
12 sets of 5 rings of double hexagon rings, (12 × 5 × 12), the bottom ring of each double ring pinched into a 6 ball triangle.
See this design used in a tutorial for a bubble cluster of 12 hemispheres here:
   • Ultimate Sphere Style Bubble Cluster ...  

3) Double Hexagon Sphere - 1020 balls 2:07
80 double rings of 6 (12 rings of 5 double rings = 60, + 20 more to fill the gaps between rings of 5 double rings of 6), + 12 rings of 5 magnets for the vertices (12 × 5 × 6 × 2 + 20 × 6 × 2 + 12 × 5).
See how to expand this design to build a much larger and highly spherical sphere here:
   • Expanded Perfect Sphere | Tutorial | ...  

4) Seamless Modular Icosahedron Sphere - 1116 balls 3:46
The pentagonal pieces must interlock with triangle/hex pieces of the opposite polarity, but you can just turn a triangle/hex piece over to change its polarity. The pentagonal pieces should all be made the same way, but in the opposite direction of winding to the triangle/hex pieces, or in the same direction from the opposite end of the same line of magnets. If you make a mistake in building them you can flip their polarity also by removing the point from one side and putting it on the other, as they are otherwise symmetrical. (Mine were gold decorated on one side, which is optional of course).
(12 × 53 ball pentagonal pieces + 20 × 24 ball triangle/hex pieces).
See this design scaled up larger in a giant cluster of 12 hemispheres here:
   • Large Modular Icosahedron Hemisphere ...  

5) Seamless Bucky Sphere (Soccer Ball) - 1232 balls 5:26
Also known in geometry as the truncated icosahedron. The double triangle pieces must be made with opposite polarity to the pentagons to join correctly. The pentagonal pieces can just be turned over to reverse their polarity to bond correctly with the triangles, but all the triangular pieces must be made with the same polarity, ie wound in the same direction from the same end of the same line of magnets.
(12 × 51 pentagonal pieces + 20 × 19 gap filled double triangles).
See this design in a tutorial for a bubble cluster of 12 domes here:
   • Bucky Dome Bubble Cluster | Tutorial ...  

6) Rhombic Triacontahedron Fractal Sphere - 1272 balls 7:21
This shape exhibits quasi self-similarity of the 6 small pieces in each mini hemisphere to the 12 mini hemispheres with each other, a fractal property. (12 × 21 solid pentagonal pieces and 12 × 5 × 17 outer solid square pieces).
See this design in a fractal mega cluster of 72 mini hemispheres here:
   • Rhombic Fractal Hemisphere Mega Clust...  

7) Octahedral Rhombicosidodecahedron Sphere - 1440 balls 8:40
Each octahedron (or rhombicuboctahedron) must be built exactly as shown, with the rings of 4 balls top and bottom of the 2 rings of 8, and only with the polarity that interlocks with the rings of 8, but then is placed to line up in parallel. The polarity of these little octahedrons is also orientation specific, so they must first be connected carefully as shown into identical triangular subunits of 3, and then they will bond correctly with each other (20 × 3 octahedrons × 24 balls each).

Music track is Unfoldment, Revealment, Evolution, Exposition, Integration by Chris Zabriskie, from the YouTube free music library.

#ledwatchman #Neocube #Neoballs #Nanodots #ZenMagnets #Speks #Buckyballs #NingoBalls #CyberCube #KlikyBalls #howto

Unfoldment, Revealment, Evolution, Exposition, Integration by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/reappear/
Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/