Boron Suboxide

Boron suboxide (chemical formula B60) is a solid compound of boron and oxygen. In the photographs available in the literature it seems to appear as a group of twenty crystals with the shape of a truncated golden rhombohedron, together forming a range of shapes from an icosahedron to a truncated icosahedron. This Demonstration lets you control the extent of truncation (a) from 0 to 1/3. Additional controls let you move the units in a radial direction (b) or truncate the tetrahedral part (c) in order to have a compound explorer. In the various combinations of the control settings (a, b, c) it is possible to see many different shapes, such as the icosidodecahedron (0, 2.618, 0), the great icosahedron (0, -1, 1), the rhombic triacontahedron and its stellations (for example, the great rhombic triacontahedron) (0, -1, 0), the rhombic hexecontahedron (0.618, 2.618, 0), and the compound of 5 cubes (-0.618, -1, 0). In certain combinations, you can see models of space frames.