I was looking for help calculating the total height of a stained glass pattern that I was attempting to create for a diamond shaped pyramidal structure. I found it took me about 2 hours on google to even find the correct name for the structures in three dimensions.  This says nothing about google’s algorithms but it does say a lot about how little I remember about geometry (65 years past, maybe longer).

After looking over many sites I was totally overwhelmed with this one in particular and it is on a par with none other I have visited.  Check out the animation, the presentation, the whole site is really awesome.  However, I still have to ask for help — which I will do — for calculating the height of my pattern (and very likely, I wont find a single customer who would be able to enlarge it and calculate the height for themselves either… just to alleviate my own reduced self-worth at not being able to remember how to do it from 8th grade.

HERE is their webpage for an octagonal pyramid and for truncated pyramids. But looking further you will find many awesome pages, this one on the golden spiral.  Just peruse the site, you will be amazed. Here is a screen print from an animation.