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Convex Polyhedra with Regular Faces

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018

Norman W. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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An interesting set of geometric figures is composed of the convex polyhedra in Euclidean 3-space whose faces are regular polygons (not necessarily all of the same kind). A polyhedron with regular faces isuniform if it has symmetry operations taking a given vertex into each of the other vertices in turn (5, p. 402). If in addition all the faces are alike, the polyhedron isregular.

That there are just five convex regular polyhedra—the so-called Platonic solids—was proved by Euclid in the thirteenth book of theElements (10, pp. 467-509). Archimedes is supposed to have described thirteen other uniform, “semi-regular” polyhedra, but his work on the subject has been lost.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Mathematical Society 1966

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