 Today, we will harness the power of the triangle to make space frames. Welcome to Make Time. My name is Gabriel and I'm with the studio, which is a maker space that's part of the Long Beach Public Library system. So in this program, Make Time, we're going to be making projects that you can make from home. Today, we'll be making space frames. So what is a space frame? This is a space frame. A space frame is a three-dimensional structure and it's very strong. It's also composed of triangles. So why triangles? So triangles are very strong shapes. And to demonstrate, I'm going to compare it with this rectangle. So if I take this rectangle and I push in the sides, you'll notice that it changes in shape. What was once a rectangle is now a rhombus or a diamond. It's not a very strong shape. Now let's try to do the same thing with this triangle. You'll notice that when I push in the sides that the triangle never loses its shape. That's because the angles are fixed. The rectangle can be deformed because the angles aren't fixed, they can just distort. But the triangle always retains its shape. So by harnessing the strength of the triangle, space frames can be used to create a wide range of projects, from the architectural to the artistic. Here's an example by famous architect Buckminster Fuller. In this example, him and his team are creating a structure similar to those seen in a playground. If you live in Long Beach like I do, you might recognize this next example. This is the geodesic dome that's next to the Queen Mary. You can even find space frames in, well, space. This is the International Space Station, and it's orbiting around our planet. Pretty cool, huh? So now that we know what they are, I'm going to show you how you can make your very own space frame. You ready? Let's do this. For today's project, you're going to need the following materials. You're going to get some 8.5x11 paper, I'm using the scratch paper, a pair of scissors. You're also going to need some tape. So you can use duct tape, you can use masking tape, or you can use the clear scotch tape. I'm going to start my project with the scotch tape, and then the second part is going to use this masking tape. And the last thing you're going to need is a pencil. All right, so now that we have our materials, let's get started. So let's start by making the struts. We're going to take out our 8.5x11 paper, and we're going to begin by folding it in half. I'm just going to fold it like that, and then I'm going to fold it this way. Make sure you get a nice crease on there, and you're going to open up the sheet of paper. And you're just going to cut along the score lines that we created. So I'm going to get my pair of scissors, and let's get started. Let's fast forward this. Okay, so once you're done with that, you should have these four small sheets of paper. And for this project, we actually need six, and I prepared, so I have six of these sheets of paper. So at this point, I'm going to prepare my tape. So I'm going to get six pieces of scotch tape. It's kind of laid off to the side, and they don't have to be big pieces, about an inch to two inches, and it's going to be one for each strut. So now, I'm going to get one of these sheets of paper, and I'm going to begin by rolling one of the corners. So I'll slowly start to roll up, and we're going to roll it all the way to that other corner. Okay, so once you have this shape, you can take one of your pieces of tape. Cool. So we have one strip. Now we're going to repeat this five more times. For this next one, I'm going to show you another way to do it. So using that pencil, so you can place it on that corner, and you can begin rolling it over. And at some point, so your pencil doesn't get stuck, remove the pencil, and then continue rolling it. And again, you're going to get one of your pieces of tape, and tape that little corner nice and secure, and let's finish this up. All right. So there we have our six struts. So now, we're going to put three of these aside. And with these three that I have in front of me, I'm going to arrange them into the shape of a, you guessed it, triangle. And this time, I'm going to use my yellow masking tape. I'm going to cut a piece here, and then connect this top part right here. And you can press down, but not so hard that you're going to flatten the strut. Now at this point, I'm going to flip it over, and I'm going to secure this by folding it over. Okay. So we have our triangle. Now I'm going to prepare the next part by tearing three more pieces of tape, and I'm going to tape it underneath each corner, leaving a little piece out just like that. So now, I'm going to take the last three struts that we made. I'm going to place them like that, and fold the tape over. Make sure that it can go up like that, so you can leave a little bit of room in between these two. Okay. So now that we have our triangle and the three struts on the side, I'm going to get one more piece of tape, and I'm going to bring in all three, and I'm going to tape them together. So there we have it, your very own space frame. So the shape by itself is actually called a tetrahedron, and now at this point you can make more of these like I did over here, or you can start adding more struts to it and start making more complex shapes. Here's an example. So I took a tetrahedron, and then I started adding more struts, and it became a polyhedron, and I can continue doing this to make more complex or intricate shapes. It's really cool. So now it's time to get some ideas. We're going to check in with other folks from the library to see what they made with their space rings. Let's go check it out. I'm Kevin. I'm a learning guide at the Billy Jean King Main Library, and I use the space frame to make a little homemade bird feeder to put on a ledge. The tetrahedron gives a really nice sturdy structure to hold the two mini triangle bird feeders in place. Hello, this is Chris from the studio, and this is my space frame. Hi, this is Jackie here. I made a space frame today, and I decided that I could make something to use when I play games with other people. So you know there's sometimes those weird shaped dice that have different numbers of sides, while I made a four-sided dice. So I used the triangle, get out of the sunshine there, the triangle space frame that we made, and then I traced it and cut out triangles and taped them on. My tape wasn't very good, sorry about that, and I put one, two, three, four on each of the sides. So if we're trying to figure out who goes first, second, third, fourth in a game, or if we're playing another kind of game where you have to roll a die, you can use that for your game now, and it's more fun than a little tiny one. Hello everyone. My name's Artie, and I made a space frame. What am I going to do with my space frame? Well, it holds these brushes pretty well. Maybe I'll use it to hold my phone brushes. What are you going to do with your space frame? Sky's the limit, or maybe space. Cool. Thanks for sharing everyone. So there you have some great ideas of what other people have made using space frames. So now it's your turn to create your own ideas. It's time to make. So that's it for today. Thank you for making time to watch. Take time and look out for our other videos with more creative projects that you can make from home. See ya.