KeplerPoinsot polyhedron

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The four KeplerPoinsot polyhedra are illustrated above. Each is identified by its Schlfli
symbol, of the form {p, q}, and by its name. One face of each figure is shown yellow and
outlined in red.

encyclopedia
In geometry, a KeplerPoinsot polyhedron is any of four regular star polyhedra.[1]
They may be obtained by stellating the regular convex dodecahedron and icosahedron, and
differ from these in having regular pentagrammic faces or vertex figures.

Contents
[hide]

1Characteristics
o 1.1Non-convexity
o 1.2Euler characteristic
o 1.3Duality
o 1.4Summary
2Relationships among the regular polyhedra
3History
4Regular star polyhedra in art and culture
5See also
6References
7External links

Characteristics[edit]
Non-convexity[edit]
These figures have pentagrams (star pentagons) as faces or vertex figures. The small and great
stellated dodecahedron have nonconvex regular pentagram faces. The great
dodecahedron and great icosahedron have convex polygonal faces, but pentagrammic vertex
figures.
In all cases, two faces can intersect along a line that is not an edge of either face, so that part of
each face passes through the interior of the figure. Such lines of intersection are not part of the
polyhedral structure and are sometimes called false edges. Likewise where three such lines
intersect at a point that is not a corner of any face, these points are false vertices. The images
below show golden balls at the true vertices, and silver rods along the true edges.
 For example, the small stellated dodecahedron has 12 pentagram faces with the
central pentagonal part hidden inside the solid. The visible parts of each face comprise
five isosceles triangles which touch at five points around the pentagon. We could treat these
triangles as 60 separate faces to obtain a new, irregular polyhedron which looks outwardly
identical. Each edge would now be divided into three shorter edges (of two different kinds), and
the 20 false vertices would become true ones, so that we have a total of 32 vertices (again of two
kinds). The hidden inner pentagons are no longer part of the polyhedral surface, and can
disappear. Now the Euler's formula holds: 60 90 + 32 = 2. However this polyhedron is no
longer the one described by the Schlfli symbol {5/2, 5}, and so can not be a KeplerPoinsot
solid even though it still looks like one from outside.
Euler characteristic [edit]
A KeplerPoinsot polyhedron covers its circumscribed sphere more than once, with the centers
of faces acting as winding points in the figures which have pentagrammic faces, and the vertices
in the others. Because of this, they are not necessarily topologically equivalent to the sphere as
Platonic solids are, and in particular the Euler relation

does not always hold. Schlfli held that all polyhedra must have = 2, and he rejected the
small stellated dodecahedron and great dodecahedron as proper polyhedra. This view was
never widely held.

A modified form of Euler's formula, using density (D) of the vertex figures ( ) and faces (

) was given by Arthur Cayley, and holds both for convex polyhedra (where the
correction factors are all 1), and the KeplerPoinsot polyhedra:

Duality[edit]
The KeplerPoinsot polyhedra exist in dual pairs:

Small stellated dodecahedron and great dodecahedron and

Great stellated dodecahedron and great icosahedron.
Summary[edit]

Schlfli
{p,q} Vertex
Spherical Stellation Faces Vertices
Name Picture and Edges figure Density S
tiling diagram {p} {q}
Coxeter- (config.)
Dynkin

Small
stellated {5/2,5} 12 12 -
30 3
dodecahedron {5/2} {5} 6
(sissid) (5/2)5
 Great
stellated {5/2,3} 12 20
30 2 7
dodecahedron {5/2} {3}
(gissid)
(5/2)3

Great {5,5/2} 12 12 -
dodecahedron 30 3
{5} {5/2} 6
(gad)
(55)/2

Great {3,5/2} 20 12
icosahedron 30 2 7
{3} {5/2}
(gike)
(35)/2

Relationships among the regular polyhedra[edit]

These share the same

These share the same vertex arrangements:
vertex and edge arrangements:

The icosahedron, small stellated dodecahedron, great The small stellated

icosahedron, and great dodecahedron. dodecahedron and great icosahedron.
 The dodecahedron and great stellated dodecahedron.

The icosahedron and great

dodecahedron.

The small stellated dodecahedron and great icosahedron share the same vertices and
edges. The icosahedron and great dodecahedron also share the same vertices and
edges.
The three dodecahedra are all stellations of the regular convex dodecahedron, and the
great icosahedron is a stellation of the regular convex icosahedron. The small stellated
dodecahedron and the great icosahedron are facettings of the convex dodecahedron,
while the two great dodecahedra are facettings of the regular convex icosahedron.
If the intersections are treated as new edges and vertices, the figures obtained will not
be regular, but they can still be considered stellations. (See also List of Wenninger
polyhedron models)

History[edit]

Floor mosaic in St Mark's Basilica, Venice sometimes attributed to Paolo Uccello

Most, if not all, of the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra were known of in some form or other
before Kepler. A small stellated dodecahedron appears in a marble tarsia (inlay panel)
on the floor of St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy. It dates from the 15th century and is
sometimes attributed to Paolo Uccello. In his Perspectiva corporum
regularium (Perspectives of the regular solids), a book of woodcuts published in the 16th
century, Wenzel Jamnitzer depicts the great dodecahedron and the great stellated
dodecahedron.[2] It is clear from the general arrangement of the book that he regarded
only the five Platonic solids as regular.
The small and great stellated dodecahedra, sometimes called the Kepler polyhedra,
were first recognized as regular by Johannes Kepler in 1619. He obtained them
by stellating the regular convex dodecahedron, for the first time treating it as a surface
rather than a solid. He noticed that by extending the edges or faces of the convex
dodecahedron until they met again, he could obtain star pentagons. Further, he
recognized that these star pentagons are also regular. In this way he constructed the two
stellated dodecahedra. Each has the central convex region of each face "hidden" within
the interior, with only the triangular arms visible. Kepler's final step was to recognize that
these polyhedra fit the definition of regularity, even though they were not convex, as the
traditional Platonic solids were.
In 1809, Louis Poinsot rediscovered Kepler's figures, by assembling star pentagons
around each vertex. He also assembled convex polygons around star vertices to
discover two more regular stars, the great icosahedron and great dodecahedron. Some
people call these two the Poinsot polyhedra. Poinsot did not know if he had discovered
all the regular star polyhedra.
Three years later, Augustin Cauchy proved the list complete by stellating the Platonic
solids, and almost half a century after that, in 1858, Bertrand provided a more elegant
proof by faceting them.
The following year, Arthur Cayley gave the KeplerPoinsot polyhedra the names by
which they are generally known today.
A hundred years later, John Conway developed a systematic terminology for stellations
in up to four dimensions. Within this scheme, he suggested slightly modified names for
two of the regular star polyhedra:

Cayley's name Conway's name

small stellated dodecahedron stellated dodecahedron

great dodecahedron great dodecahedron (unchanged)

great stellated dodecahedron stellated great dodecahedron

great icosahedron great icosahedron (unchanged)

Conway's names have seen some use but have not been widely adopted.

Regular star polyhedra in art and culture[edit]

Alexander's Star
 Regular star polyhedra first appear in Renaissance art. A small stellated dodecahedron
is depicted in a marble tarsia on the floor of St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy, dating from
ca. 1430 and sometimes attributed to Paulo Ucello. Wenzel Jamnitzer published his
book of woodcuts Perspectiva Corporum Regularium in 1568. He depicts the great
dodecahedron and the great stellated dodecahedron - this second is slightly distorted,
probably through errors in method rather than ignorance of the form.
In the 20th Century, Artist M. C. Escher's interest in geometric forms often led to works
based on or including regular solids; Gravitation is based on a small stellated
dodecahedron.
A dissection of the great dodecahedron was used for the 1980s puzzle Alexander's Star.
Norwegian artist Vebjrn Sands sculpture The Kepler Star is displayed near Oslo
Airport, Gardermoen. The star spans 14 meters, and consists of an icosahedron and
a dodecahedron inside a great stellated dodecahedron.

See also[edit]
Media related to Kepler-Poinsot solids at Wikimedia Commons

Regular polytope
Regular polyhedron
List of regular polytopes
Uniform polyhedron
Uniform star polyhedron
Polyhedral compound
regular star 4-polytope the ten regular star 4-polytopes, 4-dimensional analogues
of the KeplerPoinsot polyhedra
c