A quick glance at my things will tell you that I have a bit of an obsession with the Platonic solids...I've also been very in to "coordinate motion" puzzles: puzzles in which all the pieces have to move at once in order to put them together or take them apart. With this project, I've tried to exorcise both of those obsessions a little bit.

Now I own a wooden puzzle in which all 5 Platonic solids nest within each other. There was even a NY Times article about this puzzle. But I've always found it a bit dissatisfying; I'm not quite sure why. So I've tried my hand at making my own puzzle in which all of the Platonic solids nest within each other. And each one is a coordinated-motion puzzle as well. Each individual puzzle consists of multiple copies of just one piece, which exhibit not only the symmetry of each Platonic solid, but also the relationship between the symmetries of each.

Everything is pretty easy to print. I would use fine detail (like 0.1mm layer height if you can) for the tetrahedron puzzle. I think everything else would be fine with 0.2mm. The cube pieces require a small amount of support, but I printed everything else with no support. Each STL file name says how many you need to print, but for reference: icosahedron piece: 4 copies dodecahedron piece: 6 copies cube piece: 4 copies tetrahedron piece: 4 copies octahedron: 1 copy

The puzzles are tricky to put together, but also can be tricky to take apart. It always seems like you don't have enough hands to get the job done well! But I've discovered a cool trick that works on some of them. A hint: there's a magical (but fictituous) force in physics which pulls outward in all directions from an axis on a body...

I've also included, as usual, the Python notebook I used to design this puzzle. Enjoy!