Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
How to build a large rhombicosidodecahedron bubble cluster shape from neodymium magnetic balls. Turn on subtitles/captions to see additional help on the video tutorial.
A rhombicosidodecahedron is a polyhedron with 12 pentagonal, 20 triangular and 30 square faces in a sphere-like form. This magnet version of that geometry is formed from 2 rigid subunits, a quadruple pentagon one and an interlocked square one. 5 of the square subunits go around each pentagonal subunit forming another larger subunit of 5 × 16 + 6 × 5 + 2 = 112 balls each. 12 of these subunits fit together easily to make a smaller complete sphere, 12 × 112 = 1344 magnetic balls required for one of these.
The much larger bubble cluster requires 12 interconnected hemispheres of 6 × 112 = 672 balls each, for a grand total of 8064 magnetic balls required to build the large hollow shape. I used 5mm N35 strength neodymium magnetic balls. A total of 72 quadruple pentagonal units and 360 square units forming 72 subunits (of rings of 5 square units around a quadruple pentagon unit) are required to complete the mega shape.
The rigidity of the 2 small units and the symmetry of the square ones allows the hemispheres to form strongly but also connect around their edges and retain their shape despite the finished structure being hollow and weighing over 4kg in total.
This shape is my variation on a design originally by KENTAI000 which makes use of an ingenious little square unit of 20 balls each, and is one of my favourite magnetic ball constructions:
youtu.be/4_cB38poVIw
My version here uses a smaller square unit of 16 balls and also a larger pentagon hub unit of 32 balls, for a somewhat greater magnet count but with a closely related design.
#ledwatchman #Neocube #Neoballs #Nanodots #ZenMagnets #Speks #Buckyballs #NingoBalls #CyberCube #KlikyBalls #howto
Music track is Tratak by Jesse Gallagher, from the YouTube free music library.
How to build a large rhombicosidodecahedron bubble cluster shape from neodymium magnetic balls. Turn on subtitles/captions to see additional help on the video tutorial.
A rhombicosidodecahedron is a polyhedron with 12 pentagonal, 20 triangular and 30 square faces in a sphere-like form. This magnet version of that geometry is formed from 2 rigid subunits, a quadruple pentagon one and an interlocked square one. 5 of the square subunits go around each pentagonal subunit forming another larger subunit of 5 × 16 + 6 × 5 + 2 = 112 balls each. 12 of these subunits fit together easily to make a smaller complete sphere, 12 × 112 = 1344 magnetic balls required for one of these.
The much larger bubble cluster requires 12 interconnected hemispheres of 6 × 112 = 672 balls each, for a grand total of 8064 magnetic balls required to build the large hollow shape. I used 5mm N35 strength neodymium magnetic balls. A total of 72 quadruple pentagonal units and 360 square units forming 72 subunits (of rings of 5 square units around a quadruple pentagon unit) are required to complete the mega shape.
The rigidity of the 2 small units and the symmetry of the square ones allows the hemispheres to form strongly but also connect around their edges and retain their shape despite the finished structure being hollow and weighing over 4kg in total.
This shape is my variation on a design originally by KENTAI000 which makes use of an ingenious little square unit of 20 balls each, and is one of my favourite magnetic ball constructions:
youtu.be/4_cB38poVIw
My version here uses a smaller square unit of 16 balls and also a larger pentagon hub unit of 32 balls, for a somewhat greater magnet count but with a closely related design.
#ledwatchman #Neocube #Neoballs #Nanodots #ZenMagnets #Speks #Buckyballs #NingoBalls #CyberCube #KlikyBalls #howto
Music track is Tratak by Jesse Gallagher, from the YouTube free music library.
