geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

, the great icosahedron is one of four Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra (

nonconvex A convex polytope is a special case of a polytope, having the additional property that it is also a convex set contained in the n-dimensional Euclidean space \mathbb^n. Most texts. use the term "polytope" for a bounded convex polytope, and the wo ...

regular polyhedra A regular polyhedron is a polyhedron whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags. A regular polyhedron is highly symmetrical, being all of edge-transitive, vertex-transitive and face-transitive. In classical contexts, many different equival ...

), with Schläfli symbol and Coxeter-Dynkin diagram of . It is composed of 20 intersecting triangular faces, having five triangles meeting at each vertex in a

pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle arou ...

mic sequence. The great icosahedron can be constructed analogously to the pentagram, its two-dimensional analogue, via the extension of the -dimensional simplex faces of the core -polytope (equilateral triangles for the great icosahedron, and line segments for the pentagram) until the figure regains regular faces. The

grand 600-cell In geometry, the grand 600-cell or grand polytetrahedron is a regular star 4-polytope with Schläfli symbol . It is one of 10 regular Schläfli-Hess polytopes. It is the only one with 600 cells. It is one of four ''regular star 4-polytopes'' dis ...

can be seen as its four-dimensional analogue using the same process.

Images

As a snub

The ''great icosahedron'' can be constructed a uniform snub, with different colored faces and only

tetrahedral symmetry 150px, A regular tetrahedron, an example of a solid with full tetrahedral symmetry A regular tetrahedron has 12 rotational (or orientation-preserving) symmetries, and a symmetry order of 24 including transformations that combine a reflection ...

: . This construction can be called a ''retrosnub tetrahedron'' or ''retrosnub tetratetrahedron'', similar to the

snub tetrahedron In geometry, an icosahedron ( or ) is a polyhedron with 20 faces. The name comes and . The plural can be either "icosahedra" () or "icosahedrons". There are infinitely many non- similar shapes of icosahedra, some of them being more symmetrica ...

symmetry of the icosahedron, as a partial faceting of the

truncated octahedron In geometry, the truncated octahedron is the Archimedean solid that arises from a regular octahedron by removing six pyramids, one at each of the octahedron's vertices. The truncated octahedron has 14 faces (8 regular hexagons and 6 squares), 36 ...

(or '' omnitruncated tetrahedron''): . It can also be constructed with 2 colors of triangles and

pyritohedral symmetry image:tetrahedron.jpg, 150px, A regular tetrahedron, an example of a solid with full tetrahedral symmetry A regular tetrahedron has 12 rotational (or orientation-preserving) symmetries, and a symmetry order of 24 including transformations that c ...

as, or , and is called a ''retrosnub octahedron''.

Related polyhedra

Great stellated dodecahedron truncations

It shares the same

vertex arrangement In geometry, a vertex arrangement is a set of points in space described by their relative positions. They can be described by their use in polytopes. For example, a ''square vertex arrangement'' is understood to mean four points in a plane, equa ...

as the regular convex icosahedron. It also shares the same

edge arrangement In geometry, a vertex arrangement is a set of points in space described by their relative positions. They can be described by their use in polytopes. For example, a ''square vertex arrangement'' is understood to mean four points in a plane, equa ...

as the

small stellated dodecahedron In geometry, the small stellated dodecahedron is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron, named by Arthur Cayley, and with Schläfli symbol . It is one of four nonconvex regular polyhedra. It is composed of 12 pentagrammic faces, with five pentagrams meeti ...

. A truncation operation, repeatedly applied to the great icosahedron, produces a sequence of uniform polyhedra. Truncating edges down to points produces the

great icosidodecahedron In geometry, the great icosidodecahedron is a nonconvex uniform polyhedron, indexed as U54. It has 32 faces (20 triangles and 12 pentagrams), 60 edges, and 30 vertices. It is given a Schläfli symbol r. It is the rectification of the great stell ...

as a rectified great icosahedron. The process completes as a birectification, reducing the original faces down to points, and producing the

great stellated dodecahedron In geometry, the great stellated dodecahedron is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron, with Schläfli symbol . It is one of four nonconvex regular polyhedra. It is composed of 12 intersecting pentagrammic faces, with three pentagrams meeting at each ve ...

. The truncated ''great stellated dodecahedron'' is a degenerate polyhedron, with 20 triangular faces from the truncated vertices, and 12 (hidden) doubled up pentagonal faces () as truncations of the original pentagram faces, the latter forming two great dodecahedra inscribed within and sharing the edges of the icosahedron.

References

* * (1st Edn University of Toronto (1938)) * H.S.M. Coxeter, ''

Regular Polytopes In mathematics, a regular polytope is a polytope whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags, thus giving it the highest degree of symmetry. All its elements or -faces (for all , where is the dimension of the polytope) — cells, ...

'', (3rd edition, 1973), Dover edition, , 3.6 6.2 ''Stellating the Platonic solids'', pp. 96–104

External links

* **
Uniform polyhedra and duals
{{Icosahedron stellations Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra Regular polyhedra Polyhedral stellation Deltahedra