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>an estimated 70 percent of viral capsids known to date are icosahedral, shaped like tiny soccer balls. Soccer balls are not icosahedra. The archetypal soccer
by meindnoch 7mo ago
>an estimated 70 percent of viral capsids known to date are icosahedral, shaped like tiny soccer balls.
Soccer balls are not icosahedra. The archetypal soccer ball is a truncated icosahedron: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron
- 1-more 7mo agoAnd that archetypal soccer ball design is called the Telstar and named for a communications satellite, fun fact. I think before 1968 the volleyball shape was more popular https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas_Telstar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas_Telstar
- strgrd 7mo agodo you know what the modifier "like" means in the sentence you quoted, or are you just being annoyingly pedantic
- yorwba 7mo agoThere are a few pictures of truncated icosahedra in the article, alongside several other shapes that are not icosahedra. The point is that they have icosahedral symmetry. The L is important.
- JackFr 7mo agoI was going to comment pedantically that soccer balls were dodecahedrons not icosahedrons, but in reading the article, I came to realize that truncated icosahedrons are the same as truncated dodecahedrons. This was such a delightful realization I felt the need to comment anyway.
- zem 7mo agothat is indeed a delightful realisation! akin to when I noticed that a cube and an octahedron both had a cross section that was a regular hexagon.
- meindnoch 7mo agoHmm. I'm sorry, but truncated dodecahedra are different from truncated icosahedra. Truncated dodecahedra are made from twelve 10-gon and twenty triangular faces. Truncated icosahedra are made from twenty hexagonal and twelve pentagonal faces.