The Pentagon and Soccer balls

[Sharma]

When discussing regular polygons, students usually know where regular triangles, quadrilaterals (squares), and octagons are used in real life, but tend to be perplexed on where they ever see regular pentagons and hexagons–though some know about the Pentagon in Washington. One thing they find fascinating is when I show them a standard soccer ball and how intricately arranged the regular pentagons and hexagons are. (This is also the toughest sports ball to draw). There is surely some crazy mathematical precision going into every soccer ball’s creation.

[Author]

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