Construct Objects

by Ariel Uy and Mona Wang

Answer:
FOG

Part 1

To start, we identify each of the images on the octahedron faces:

WATER, ROBOT, BOOTH, WHEAT

SWEAR, WASH, BUSH, RIBS

Looking at these words, we notice that each word has exactly 3 consonants, and the consonants are shared between words that are adjacent to each other on the octahedron. For example, the words on one side of the red line each have a "T", and on the other side each word has an "S". It may be helpful to print out and construct the octahedron, but it's not strictly necessary.

Since each face is a triangle, we place a consonant on each vertex of the triangle. 4 faces intersect at each vertex, and there is one consonant in common between those 4 words.

Flattened octohedron. Each face contains a drawing of glass of water, a robot, a booth, wheat, a ribcage, a bush, washing one's hands, and a censored speech bubble. The points of the triangles are marked with the letters WRTBHS, and the red borders go through the letters HBRW.

To extract, we read around the red line starting at the dot, and going in the direction of the arrow, to get HBRW, or "Hebrew".

Part 2

Moving on to Part 2 with the clue "Hebrew", we proceed to do the same steps as Part 1, but with the words translated into Hebrew.

There are a few properties of Hebrew words to keep in mind: Hebrew is read from right to left, and the alphabet consists of only consonants, with vowels written as diacritics. Additionally, most Hebrew words are derived from a triliteral root, consisting of three consonants.

Since we already know we are looking for three consonants, we identify the triliteral root of each word. (It's also completely possible to solve without realizing this – we could just look for the letters in common between words.)

EnglishHebrewTriliteral Root
The Flashפלאשפלש
Foxשׁוּעָלשעל
Hairשיערעשר
Shofarשׁוֹפָרשפר
Slingshotקֶלַעקלע
Bowlקְעָרָהקער
Knuckleפֶּרֶקרפק
Foldלְקַפֵּלקפל

Note: "Flash" needs to be translated as the superhero "The Flash" rather than the noun "flash".

Now we can place the letters onto vertices as in Part 1.

Flattened octohedron. Each face contains a drawing of The Flash, a fox, hair, a shofar, a slingshot, a bowl, a fist with an arrow pointing at the knuckle, and a fold. The points of the triangles are marked with the letters פלשקער, and the red borders go through the letters ערפל.

To extract, read around the red line again, to get ערפל, which translates to the answer, FOG.