EDUCATIONAL DEVICE AND METHOD
United States Patent Number 4,650,424

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS


Figure 1.0 is an illustration of a geometric ellipsoid. Figure 1.1 is an illustration of an ellipsoid generated by rotating an ellipse about a minor axis resulting in an oblate ellipsoid.
Figure 1.2 is an illustration of an ellipsoid generated by rotating an ellipse about the major axis resulting in a prolate ellipsoid.
Figure 1.3 is an illustration of an ellipsoid generated by rotating a circle about it's diameter making an ellipsoid with equal axes.

Figure 2.0 is a top view of an ellipsoidal element in the triangular or tetrahedral configuration with the triangular mark 111 in the up direction when the gravity tray is in the plane of the sheet of paper with the circle mark 109 to the right.
Figure 2.1 is the right hand view of the ellipsoidal element in Figure 2.0.
Figure 2.2 is a top view of the said ellipsoidal element as in Figure 2.0 but with the triangular mark rotated toward the viewer so that the rectangular mark 113 is in the up direction when the gravity tray is in the plane of the sheet of paper.
Figure 2.3 is the right hand view of said ellipsoidal element in Figure 2.2.

Figure 3.0 is an isometric view of the gravity tray 301 onto which ellipsoidal elements may be stacked. The tray 301 includes a surface 303 which is inclined toward a corner 305. Two walls 311 and 313 disposed atop surface 303 meet at the corner 305 to define a walled corner.
Figure 3.1 is an isometric view of the special torsion spring friction coupler 321, together with the special torsion spring inserting device 351 with a special torsion spring removing hook 353.
Figure 3.2 is a top view of the gravity tray 301 with the first three ellipsoidal elements in a triangular or tetrahedral configuration shown in cross-section in that plane that passes through the common axis connector hole and the second connector hole and the third connector hole, with the special torsion spring inserting device 351 in the process of optionally inserting a special torsion spring friction coupler 321 between the third ellipsoidal element and the first ellipsoidal element along the second connector hole. Special torsion spring friction couplers 321 have already been used to optionally connect the common axis connector holes of the first ellipsoidal element and the second ellipsoidal element and to optionally connect the third connector holes of the third ellipsoidal element and the second ellipsoidal element.

Figure 4.0 is a top view of the gravity tray with five ellipsoidal elements with their common axis connecting holes in alignment as indicated by ellipsoids of equal axes are being gravity stacked, the basic tetrahedral configuration is a regular tetrahedron of congruent sides. Moreover, the ellipsoids of equal axes are stacked closely packed where the aforementioned four conditions are satisfied as their common axis orientation circle marks are all pointing away from the lefthand wall 313, and their triangle orientation marks 111 or indicia are in the up direction from the surface 303 of tray 301. Due to the incline of the surface 303, the first onnector holes between the centerpoints of ellipsoidal elements 403 and 401; and the center line of the third connector holes between the centerpoints of ellipsoidal elements 403 and 402.
Figure 4.2 is a top view of the gravity tray with thirteen ellipsoidal elements in a triangular tetrahedral configuration that enables the student to see that the fourth connector holes pass through the centerpoints of ellipsoidal elements 421 and 403; and to see that the fifth connector holes pass through the centerpoints of ellipsoidal elements 421 and 401 and to see that the sixth connector holes pass through the centerpoints of the ellipsoidal elements 421 and 402.
Figure 4.3 is a top view of Figure 4.2 with three more ellipsoidal elements added that enables the student to see that ellipsoidal element 410 is very similar to ellipsoidal element 402 but moved over two rows of ellipsoidal elements.
Figure 4.4 is a top view of Figure 4.3 with three more ellipsoidal elements added that enables the student to see that ellipsoidal elements 410 and 423 are gravity stacking in the same vertical plane as ellipsoidal element 402.
Figure 4.5 is a top view of Figure 4.4 with three more ellipsoidal elements added that enables the student to see that ellipsoidal elements 410, 411, 412, 423, 424, 902, 906, 907 and 908 are all in the same plane in a 3 x 3 configuration of the rectangular or square or pyramid (one-half octahedron) configuration. This enables the student to see the plane that the rectangular marks 113 should be in as indicated.
Figure 4.6 is a top view of Figure 4.5 with eight more ellipsoidal elements added.
Figure 4.7 is a top view of Figure 4.6 with the last five ellipsoidal elements added to complete the tetrahedral configuration with faces with five ellipsoidal elements on each edge.
Figure 4.8 is a view of the completed tetrahedron in Figure 4.7 that has been rotated forward about the common axis represented by ellipsoidal elements 401, 402, 405, 406 and 407 in such a manner that the tetrahedron edge represented by ellipsoidal elements 915, 914, 911, 905 and 415 is facing the viewer and is in the up rectangular position as indicated by the rectangular marks.
Figure 4.9 is a view of Figure 4.8 where ellipsoidal elements equal to one-eighth of an octahedron with faces with edges equal to five ellipsoidal elements have been added to show how a cube with diagonals equal to five ellipsoidal elements is formed from the tetrahedron in Figure 4.8.

Figure 5.0 is a top view of the gravity tray with five ellipsoidal elements in the rectangular or pyramid or (one-half octahedron) configuration as indicated by the rectangular marks being in the up position.
Figure 5.1 is a top view of Figure 5.0 with twenty additional ellipsoidal elements being added. The crosssection A-A is equal to one-eighth of an octahedral configuration base where the base has edges equal to five ellipsoidal elements or onequarter of a pyramid base where the base has edges equal to five ellipsoidal elements, in a one-half octahedral configuration.
This cross-section A-A enables the student to see where the ellipsoidal elements to change the tetrahedron of Figure 4.8 to the cube of Figure 4.9 are located in the oneeighth octahedron with face edges equal to five ellipsoidal elements.
Figure 5.2 is a top view of Figure 5.1 with four more ellipsoidal elements being added.
Figure 5.3 is a top view of Figure 5.2 with twelve more ellipsoidal elements being added.
Figure 5.4 is a top view of Figure 5.3 with nine more ellipsoidal elements being added to complete the third rectangular layer.
Figure 5.5 is a top view of Figure 5.4 with four more ellipsoidal elements being added to complete the fourth rectangular layer.
Figure 5.6 is a top view of Figure 5.5 with one more ellipsoidal element being added to complete the rectangular or pyramid configuration with faces with edges equal to five ellipsoidal elements, (one-half octahedron) configuration.

Figure 6.0 is an isometric view of the cube with diagonals equal in length to five ellipsoidal elements. This view enables the student to better see how the seven ellipsoidal elements of the one-eighth octahedron as indicated by cross-section A-A closely pack on the tetrahedron of Figure 4.7 and Figure 4.8 to form the cube with diagonals equal to five ellipsoidal elements in Figure 4.9 and Figure 6.0.
Figure 6.1 is an isometric view of the cuboctahedron with ellipsoidal elements designated with the letters A through M.

Figure 7.0 is a top view of a corresponding 'up' tetrahedron and it's matching inverted corresponding 'down' tetrahedron and their matching corresponding octahedron that connects said pair of tetrahedrons. This view identifies the corner spacepoints that are used to define the unique distance ratios between corner-to-corner spacepoints as set forth in the four Sections of Table II for these sets of matching corresponding tetrahedron and octahedron blocks. Each unique set of blocks have multiple twinning planes in their common imaginary thirteen nonparallel plane space latticework.