Thread: turning 3d objects into flat 2d planes

hi, i'm not sure where this kind of question should go, i'm not very good at maths, but i am an art student and i have an idea for some images which would involve some kind of mathematical thingymajiggers i think:

well, what i want to do is for instance, take a rock, and "unfold" it so that it is a flat image, all sides visible as a flat surface. like as if it had a skin and it was spread out. would this be possible? i guess its been done with the earth in atlases, like how we see the globe spread out as a flat image in an atlas so maybe to some degree it would be possible? any thoughts/ideas?

Originally Posted by tenpcrisps

hi, i'm not sure where this kind of question should go, i'm not very good at maths, but i am an art student and i have an idea for some images which would involve some kind of mathematical thingymajiggers i think:

well, what i want to do is for instance, take a rock, and "unfold" it so that it is a flat image, all sides visible as a flat surface. like as if it had a skin and it was spread out. would this be possible? i guess its been done with the earth in atlases, like how we see the globe spread out as a flat image in an atlas so maybe to some degree it would be possible? any thoughts/ideas?

1. What you are looking for is called the net of a solid. Have a look here: Platonic Solids

2. Irregular solids are compounded by small regular parts. Have a look here: Finite element method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia