A simple octahedral wire frame bounds five stable soap films, more if the film isn't required to touch every edge. These are pictured below, along with a couple of unstable films. The images were made with the Surface Evolver program. The conical film on an octahedral frame is unstable because it has four films meeting along the lines from the corners to the center. There are six non-equivalent ways to resolve the six quadruple lines into pairs of triple lines, giving the six other films on this page.
All surfaces are flat.
This film has the least area of all those on this page. Back to Evolver examples. Ken Brakke's home page. Susquehanna University assumes no responsibility for the content of this web page. Please read the disclaimer .