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Cuboctahedron
A cuboctahedron is a very unique shape and has three different ways to find the
volume. When it is broken down, the cuboctahedron goes from being a very complex
three dimensional shape to being nothing more than a configuration of smaller figures.
Finding the volumes of these smaller shapes can prove to be easier rather than finding
the volume of the whole cuboctahedron. There are three ways to break down this figure,
and find the volume from a much simpler standpoint. You can also find the surface area
of the cuboctahedron with similar methods.
Case #1:
The first way to find the volume is using the corners that are cut off
from the original cube. There are eight corners, meaning eight triangular
pyramids. The vertices of the bases of these triangular pyramids are the
midpoints of the edges of the cube. The edges of these pyramids that are
shared with the cube are 5.4 cm. This is because they are half of the length
of the original cube edge, which was 10.8 cm. The edge that is not shared
with the original cube is 5.42 cm, according to the 45-45-90 triangle rule. To
find the volume you must multiply the area of the base triangle by the
height. The base can be looked at as either an isosceles or equilateral
triangle. If the isosceles triangle is used, the height of the pyramid will be 5.4
cm, as it is one of the sides shared with the cube. Although, to find the area
of a triangle you must multiply the triangles height by the length of its base.
In this case, the formula would be (2.72 * 5.42)= Area. The result of this

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equation is 14.58.
The volume of a pyramid can be found by multiplying the area of the base by the
height and dividing the result by 3. In this situation the equation would be set up as
( 14.58 * 5.4)= Volume. Furthermore, the result is that the volume of one triangular
pyramid is 26.244 cm which means the total volume of all of the pyramids is 209.952
cm, as there are eight. The volume of the original cube is 1,259.712 cm. This number
is calculated by taking one edge of our cube, 10.8 cm, and cubing that. If we want to
find the volume of our cuboctahedron we simply subtract the volume of the eight corner
pyramids from the volume of our original cube. Thus, the equation will be 1259.712209.952=1049.76. The volume of the cuboctahedron, which is yet to be proven further,
is 1049.76 cm.

Figure 1. Case One

Figure 1 above shows the lengths of the edges of the corner piece and the corner of the
cube in which it resides.
Case #2:
The second case is a rectangular prism that has four rectangular
pyramids on each lateral side. There are four lateral sides, meaning four
rectangular pyramids. The volume of the inner rectangular prism can be

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found by multiplying the area of the base by the height. The base is a square
that is 5.42 by 5.42 because of the 45-45-90 rule and the sides of the
square are connected to isosceles right triangles. The area of the base can
be found by multiplying the base and height of the square; 5.42 * 5.42=
58.32 cm. The height of the inner prism is 10.8 as it is the original height of
the cube. To find the volume of the inner prism you must multiply the area of
the base, 58.32 cm, by the height, 2.72 cm. The equation is 58.32 * 10.8
which is equal to the volume of the inner prism,629.856 cm.
The rectangular pyramids volume as well can be found with the area
of the base and the height. Although, you must divide by three after
multiplying. To find the area of the base you must multiply the length and
height of the base. The length is 5.42 because of the properties of 45-45-90
rule and the height is 10.8 as it is still an original edge of the cube. The result
of multiplying these is 5.42 * 10.8=58.322. To find the volume of the
rectangular prism you must take the height and the area of a base and
multiply them, then divide them by 3. Applied the equation is
(58.322 * 2.72). Simplified, you get 104.976 cm.
To find the volume of the cuboctahedron within this case you simply multiply the
volume of the rectangular by four, as there are four, and add that to the volume of the
inner prism. Therefore, (104.976 * 4) + 629.856=1049.76 cm. Our volume is, once
again, 1049.76 cm.

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Figure 2. Case Two

Figure 2 above shows the lengths of the rectangular prism inside of the original cube
and the rectangular pyramids erecting from the lateral faces of said rectangular prism.
Case #3:
Case three is eight tetrahedrons and six square pyramids. There is a
tetrahedron at every corner (eight corners) and a square pyramid at every
side (six sides). A configuration of these will form a cuboctahedron. Every
edge of the tetrahedron is 5.42 cm because the corners of the are 5.42 cm
because the 45-45-90 rule. The base of the tetrahedron is also the base of
the corner that is cut off. Every edge of the square pyramid is 5.42 cm as
well because of the 45-45-90 rule. When the corners of the cube are cut off,
the square sides are 5.42 cm, and these square sides are the base of the
regular square pyramid. To find the volume of the pyramid in the case you
must initially find the volume of both the tetrahedron and the square
pyramid. To find the volume of the tetrahedron you need to find the area of
any one of the triangles. The triangles are 5.42 cm on each side, you must
take this length and multiply it by the height, then divide the result by two to
get the area of a face of the tetrahedron. The height is 2.76 cm because

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you take half the base of the equilateral triangle, and multiply it by 3,
according to the 30-60-90 rule. Applied, the formula would be (5.42 *
2.76) = 14.583 cm. To get the volume of the tetrahedron you must must
take this area and multiply it by the height of the tetrahedron and divide that
by three.
To find the height of the tetrahedron you can use the formula
Height=(egde)6 cm. An edge in this case is 5.42 cm. The formula in this
case is Height=(5.42)6 cm. Simplification will bring us to Height=1.812
cm, which can be further simplified to Height=3.63 cm. Now, plugging the
height into our volume formula, we get Volume=(14.583 * 3.63). The
simplified volume of the tetrahedron is 52.488 cm.
The volume the regular square pyramid can be found by multiplying
the area of the base by the height and divided that by 3. The area of the
base can be found by using the formula Area=Base(Height). The length of
the base is 5.42, the height is also because it is a square. The height can be
found using Pythagorean Theorem, a+b=c. The value for a is 2.72, half of
the length of the base. The value for c is 2.76, the height of a triangle of the
square pyramid. Plugging these into the Pythagorean Theorem will result in
2.72+b=2.76. Furthermore, 14.58+b=43.74. Simplified, b=5.4 cm, or
height is equal to 5.4 cm. To find the volume you must multiply the area of
the base by the height divided by three. Applied this is (58.32 *
5.4)=104.976 cm.
To find the volume of the cuboctahedron you must take the volume of the

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tetrahedron and multiply it by eight as there are eight corners. Then, add that to the
volume of the square pyramid multiplied by six, as there are six sides. Your end result is
629.856+419.904=1049.76 cm. Once again, we have found our notorious volume,
1049.76 cm.

Figure 3. Case Three

Figure 3 above shows the lengths of the edges of the tetrahedron and regular square
pyramid.
Surface Area:
All edges of the cuboctahedron are 5.42 which is found by using
the properties of a 45-45-90 triangle. To find the surface area of one square
face of the cuboctahedron you simply multiply 5.42 by 5.42. This will give
you 58.32 cm. You then have to multiply 58.32 by 6 for the six faces of a
cuboctahedron. This will give you 349.92. To find the surface area of the
triangular faces of the cuboctahedron you must use the properties of 30-6090 find the height of the equilateral triangles. You use this information to
multiply 5.42 by 2.76, you will get 14.5812. You can simplify this down to
29.163. You then multiply that number by 8, as there are 8 triangular faces

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of the cuboctahedron. This will give you 233.283. When you add this
number to 349.92(sum of the cube faces of the cuboctahedron), you get
583.23.
Conclusion:
After having done our first figure, our second figure did not fit on the
paper which made a minor difficulty in making our models. Besides this,
there was little difficulty although it was rather time consuming and tedious.
The volume of the cuboctahedron with a 10.8 cm edge has a total volume of
1049.76 cm. The total volume was the same in all three cases because the
models themselves were the exact same. The only difference is how the
cuboctahedron was broken up. This is very evident because of how many
times repeated numbers, such as 5.42 and 2.7. The cuboctahedron, as
intimidating as it looks and sounds, is really quite simple.