Hyperbolic Soccer Ball

 Frank Sottile      sottile@math.tamu.edu


  We are all familiar with the basic Euclidean geometry 
of the plane, including the behaviour of parallel lines 
and angles in triangles. This familiarity may lead us to 
that it is a law of nature that parallel lines are always 
the same distance apart and the sum of the angles of a 
triangle is 180 degrees. The purpose of this activity 
is to disabuse us of this misconception.
  
  We will do that by building and studying a beautiful 
and thought-provoking model of the hyperbolic plane.