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The Platonic solids

Just as there are many dierent kinds of polygons, there are
also many dierent kinds of polyhedra. If you could cut a poly- Polyhedra are three-dimensional
objects made of at sides, called
faces. Two faces meet at an
edge, and three or more meet at a
vertex. Polyhedra is the plural of
polyhedron.
hedron along some of its edges and unfold it into a single two-
dimensional gure, that gure is a net.
For example, here are nets for a cube and a tetrahedron:
1. Cubes are made of square faces. Suppose you wanted to
make a dierent polyhedron using only squares.
(a) How many faces meet at each vertex on a cube?
(b) A polyhedron must have at least three faces meeting at
each vertex. Try to draw part of a net for a polyhedron
in which four squares meet at a vertex:
i. On a piece of paper, choose a point to be the vertex Graph paper might work best, if
you have some.
and call it P.
ii. Draw a square with the vertex as one of the squares
vertices.
iii. Draw three more squares that share the vertex with
the rst square. For this to be a net, the squares
you draw can not overlap.
Cut out your drawing and try to fold it so P could be
a vertex of a polygon. What happens? Why does this
make sense?
(c) Is it possible to make a polyhedron with more than
three square faces meeting at a vertex?
2. A square is a regular quadrilateral. Suppose you wanted In a regular polygon, all sides have
the same length and all interior
angles have the same measure.
to make a polyhedron using regular (equilateral) triangles
for faces.
(a) First use three triangles at a vertex.
i. Draw part of a net for a polyhedron in which three To draw an equilateral triangle,
you can carefully measure the
lengths and make the interior
angles all 60

. You might make

one and trace it to create the
others.
regular triangles meet at a vertex V .
ii. Cut the drawing out and try folding it so V could
be a vertex of a polyhedron. What do you need to
do to nish the polyhedron?
iii. Make another drawing, and this time add another
triangle at a dierent vertex. (The original vertex
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
The Platonic solids: Problem 2
should still have only three triangles there.) Would
the resulting object have three triangles at every
vertex? (Cut it out and try folding it up, to check.)
(b) Try four regular triangles at a vertex.
i. Draw four at a vertex, and add triangles so that
another vertex also has four triangles.
ii. Cut out the drawing and try folding it. If necessary,
add more triangles (by redrawing the net or by tap-
ing on new triangles) until you get a polyhedron
with four triangles at each vertex. Be sure there are four at each
vertex.
iii. How many faces does the polyhedron have?
(c) Can you make a polyhedron with ve regular trian-
gles at each vertex? If so, how many faces does the
polyhedron have? If not, why not?
(d) Can you make a polyhedron with six regular triangles
at each vertex? If so, how many faces does the poly-
hedron have? If not, why not?
3. Now youve tried triangles and quadrilaterals. Do a similar
exploration with regular pentagons.
(a) Can you make a polyhedron with three regular pen-
tagons at each vertex? If so, how many faces does the
polyhedron have? If not, why not?
(b) Can you make a polyhedron with four regular pen-
tagons at each vertex? If so, how many faces does the
polyhedron have? If not, why not?
4. Can you make a polyhedron with three regular hexagons Hint: What is the measure of the
interior angles of a regular
hexagon? What happens when
you make three of them share a
vertex? Compare this to four
squares sharing a vertex, or six
regular triangles.
at each vertex? If so, how many faces does the polyhedron
have? If not, why not?
5. Explain why you cant create a polyhedron using only reg-
ular polygons with more than six sides.
6. A Platonic solid is a polyhedron that has only one kind
of regular polygon for all faces, with the same number of
faces at each vertex. (These are also called regular solids.)
How many Platonic solids are there? Ignore dierences in size. A large
cube and a small cube are both
the same kind of Platonic solid.
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
The Platonic solids: Hints 1
Hints
These can be helpful for creating your nets. Cut some of
the gures out and tape them together. (For the triangles, you
could even draw the net directly on the paper before cutting.)
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
The Platonic solids: Hints 2
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
The Platonic solids: Answers 1
Answers
1. (a) 3 Teachers Note: The directions
ask students to draw and cut out
nets and partial nets. You could
have them cut out several regular
polygons before they begin, and
let them tape them together
rather than drawing the nets.
Each student or group should
have at least 32 triangles, 6
squares, and 12 pentagons.
Extras would be good, in case
students rip some as they make
(and possibly take apart) their
polyhedra.
You also might be able (and
prefer) to give them premade
manipulativesplastic triangles,
squares, pentagons, and perhaps
hexagons (all regular) that can
interlock to create nets and
three-dimensional objects. The
same quantities as above is
recommended. As few as 20
triangles can be used, but
students will have to take their
rst polyhedra apart to make the
icosahedron.
(b) The four squares at the vertex dont leave any gap to
allow folding into a corner.
(c) No
2. (a) (Students create a tetrahedron with four triangular
sides.)
(b) (Students create an octahedron with eight triangular
sides.)
(c) Yes, 20 sides. (Students create an icosahedron.)
(d) No. Six triangles at a vertex lay at, with no gap to
allow folding into a corner.
3. (a) Yes, 12 sides.
(b) No. Four pentagons at a vertex will overlap.
4. No. Three hexagons at a vertex will overlap.
5. A regular polygon with more than six sides will have in-
terior angles greater than 120

in measure. You cant

put three at the same angle without overlapping, so you
wouldnt be able to fold them into a corner.
6. There are ve Platonic solids. Teachers Note: You might
have students research the names
of the solids, or tell them yourself:
tetrahedron (triangular pyramid,
four faces), hexahedron (cube, six
faces), octahedron (eight faces),
dodecahedron (twelve faces),
icosahedron (twenty faces).
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001