In Euclidean geometry, a Platonic solid is a regular, convex polyhedron. The faces are congruent, regular polygons, with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. There are exactly five solids which meet those criteria; each is named according to its number of faces.
| Tetrahedron (four faces) |
Cube or hexahedron (six faces) |
Octahedron (eight faces) |
Dodecahedron (twelve faces) |
Icosahedron (twenty faces) |
The aesthetic beauty and symmetry of the Platonic solids have made them a favorite subject of geometers for thousands of years. They are named for the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who theorized that the classical elements were constructed from the regular solids.
Read more about Platonic Solid: History, Combinatorial Properties, Classification, In Nature and Technology
Famous quotes containing the words platonic and/or solid:
“The exercise of letters is sometimes linked to the ambition to contruct an absolute book, a book of books that includes the others like a Platonic archetype, an object whose virtues are not diminished by the passage of time.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me;Mnot hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less,—not suppose a case, but take the case that is; to travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no satisfaction to commence to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)