Skip to main content
Daniel P. Kelly, Ed.D., DTE
Assistant Professor

The Trisquarcle

Research into how students view simple shapes and objects

This research is part of a larger project on design intent. We are trying to determine what decisions students make when creating 3D models and why they make those decisions. to do that, we need to know what they are initially visualizing and their preliminary thoughts about their task and how that drives decision making.

What the heck is a Trisquarcle?

The Trisquarcle is a object that, if viewed from different angles, looks like a triangle, square, or circle – hence the name, Trisquarcle.

When drawn orthographically, the three principal views are a triangle, square, and circle.

Preliminary Study

We conducted a pilot study and gave a class of engineering students 3D printed Trisquarcles and asked them to draw the orthographic representation and indicate what they saw first.

orthographic representation of the trisquarcle
Note: the drawing above is missing features and is only meant to demonstrate the three principle shapes.
graphs of what students reported seeing and drawing first

The results did not fit our hypothesis and the shape they reported seeing first doesn’t make logical sense. We suspect a Mandela-type effect since we asked after they had already drawn it. So, we are stepping back to see what random students see first, with no drawing.

Current Study

We are currently asking random individuals what shape they see first to ascertain what people actually visualizing without any outside influence. We are only asking what shape they see first, and basic demographic questions.

This project is operating under two separate IRB protocols (29006 and 28487). The informed consent for the visualization only study (29006) can be found by clicking the button below.

Informed Consent Document

If you have any questions or would like more information about this research, contact Daniel Kelly, dpkelly@ncsu.edu, or Sam Munzer, samunzer@ncsu.edu.