The Great Pyramid --- A tetrahedron, or four-sided pyramid --- in Giza, Egypt.
Making a tetrahedral kite means using very lightweight materials such as plastic drinking straws and tissue paper. A tetrahedral kite is actually formed using four smaller tetrahedrons, three of which form the base while the fourth serves as a cap. If you use straws that are all the same length, you can easily make your own kite without much measuring. Making such a kite provides children with a fun activity and teaches them a little about geometry.
Instructions
1. Thread the needle with the string and slide three drinking straws onto it. Cut the string, leaving about five inches of it hanging out of the straws on either end. Tie the two end strings together, forming a triangle out of the straws.
2. Re-thread the needle and cut a 26-inch length of thread. Loop the thread over one of the joints in your triangle, leaving half of the thread on one side and half on the other. Slide a straw over the two lengths of thread. Repeat for the other two joints.
3. Tie the stray straws together, forming a tetrahedron out of your straws.
4. Lay the tetrahedron on a piece of colored tissue paper. Trace around one face of your tetrahedron. Set the tetrahedron down beside the sketch, aligning one edge with one of the sides of the triangle, and trace around the tetrahedron again. You should now have a diamond shape.
5. Use a ruler to draw a 1-inch-wide strip of paper along each of the four sides of the diamond. Cut the diamond, along with the tabs, out of the tissue paper.
6. Place your tetrahedron on one half of the diamond. Fold the flaps over the straws and tape them in place. Bend the other half of the diamond up over another face of the tetrahedron. Fold the flaps on that half around the straws and tape them in place. Two faces of your tetrahedron are now covered with tissue paper.
7. Create three more tissue-covered tetrahedrons, just as you did the first. Use tissue paper of different colors.
8. Align three of the tetrahedrons into a triangle formation, with the tissue-covered faces all pointing in the same direction. Tie them together using the spare thread hanging off of the joints. Trim the thread afterwards with a pair of scissors.
9. Balance the remaining tetrahedron on top of the trio and tie each corner of its base to the tips of the tetrahedrons underneath using the spare thread hanging off the joints. Afterwards, trim any extra thread hanging off of your kite.
10. Tie a cord to one end of your kite, looping it around one of the joints. Stretch it across to the base of the kite and tie it to one of the joints there. Allow a lot of give in this cord. Do not make it tight.
11. Tie the end of your spool of kite string to the middle of the cord.
