Fictional Mathematicians
umasundresh
Get to know some mathematicians whose whole existence was conjured up by the authors’ vivid imaginations.
November 2022
Platonic Solids
Platonic solids are three-dimensional geometrical objects that have been studied for millennia due to their symmetry and beauty. Euclid, a Greek Mathematician proved that there are exactly five such solids.
They are a tetrahedron, a cube, an octahedron, a dodecahedron, and an icosahedron.
Regular polygons are those with all of their sides equal. Since a Regular Polygon has equal sides, it also has equal angles.
| Number of sides ‘n’ | Regular Polygon |
| 3 | Equilateral Triangle |
| 4 | Square |
| 5 | Pentagon |
| 6 | Hexagon |
and so on…
A Platonic solid is a three-dimensional shape, each face is a regular polygon, and the same number of polygons intersect at each vertex.
There are only five Platonic solids exist.
1. Cube
- The cube consists of 6 squares
- Three squares meet at each vertex
- 8 vertices
- 12 edges
2. Tetrahedron
- The Tetrahedron consists of 4 Equilateral triangles.
- Three triangles meet at each vertex.
- 4 Vertices
- 6 Edges
3. Octahedron
- The Octahedron consists of 8 triangles
- 4 triangles meet at each vertex
- 8 Faces
- 6 Vertices
- 12 Edges
4. Dodecahedron
- The dodecahedron consists of 12 Pentagons.
- 3 pentagons meet at each vertex
- 20 Vertices
- 30 Edges
5. Icosahedron
- The Icosahedron consists of 20 Equilateral triangles.
- 5 triangles meet at each vertex
- 12 Vertices
- 30 Edges
