Geometric Model, L. Brill No. 200. Ser. 15 No. 5, Projection of a Polytope (Six Hundred-Cell)
date: label: date made
content: 1892
name: label: maker
content: L. Brill
notes: label: Description
content: This string and wire model of a 600-cell consists of several wire polyhedra, one inside another. The innermost polyhedron appears to be a cube with a tetrahedron erected on each of its six sides. The second and third polyhedra are extremely complex, with triangular faces of differing dimensions. The fourth and outermost polyhedron appears to have 32 equilateral triangles for faces. The model originally sold with a skeleton of a tetrahedron on the outside, but that is missing on this example.
label: Description
content: In the late nineteenth century, several mathematicians thought of ways of envisioning four-dimensional surfaces in three-dimensional space. The German mathematician Victor Schlegel developed a series of wire and thread models for the purpose. The series was first published by Ludwig Brill in 1886.
label: Description
content: This model (presently misshapen and missing its threads) represents the 600-cell. It supposed to have 599 tetrahedra inside an outer tetrahedron.
label: Description
content: This example of the model was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, a World’s Fair held in Chicago in 1893.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: L. Brill, Catalog mathematischer Modelle. . ., Darmstadt: L. Brill, 1892, pp. 31, 88.________.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Hesse, Darmstadt
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Wesleyan University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0112.153
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0112.153
label: accession number
content: 1985.0112
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: string (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 25 cm x 30 cm x 27 cm; 9 27/32 in x 11 13/16 in x 10 5/8 in