In mathematics, a dodecahedral number is a figurate number that represents a dodecahedron. The nth dodecahedral number is given by the formula
The first such numbers are: 0, 1, 20, 84, 220, 455, 816, 1330, 2024, 2925, 4060, 5456, 7140, 9139, 11480, … (sequence A006566 in the OEIS ).
The first study of dodecahedral numbers appears to have been by René Descartes, around 1630, in his De solidorum elementis. Prior to Descartes, figurate numbers had been studied by the ancient Greeks and by Johann Faulhaber, but only for polygonal numbers, pyramidal numbers, and cubes. Descartes introduced the study of figurate numbers based on the Platonic solids and some semiregular polyhedra; his work included the dodecahedral numbers. However, De solidorum elementis was lost, and not rediscovered until 1860. In the meantime, dodecahedral numbers had been studied again by other mathematicians, including Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg in 1774, Georg Simon Klügel in 1808, and Sir Frederick Pollock in 1850. [1]
The (3n+1)th tetrahedral number is also the (n+1)th dodecahedral number. Illustrated is a geometrical rendering of this equality. When the triangular faces of the tetrahedron are divided into congruent trapezoids, the result is a dodecahedral graph; with the figurate number array for the (3n+1)th tetrahedral number each edge of the dodecahedral graph fall along (n+1) unit balls.
The ordinary generating function of the Dodecahedral numbers is
In geometry, a polyhedron is a three-dimensional figure with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.
In mathematics, and more specifically in algebraic topology and polyhedral combinatorics, the Euler characteristic is a topological invariant, a number that describes a topological space's shape or structure regardless of the way it is bent. It is commonly denoted by .
The term figurate number is used by different writers for members of different sets of numbers, generalizing from triangular numbers to different shapes and different dimensions. The term can mean
In mathematics and combinatorics, a centered hexagonal number, or hex number, is a centered figurate number that represents a hexagon with a dot in the center and all other dots surrounding the center dot in a hexagonal lattice. The following figures illustrate this arrangement for the first four centered hexagonal numbers:
A pentagonal number is a figurate number that extends the concept of triangular and square numbers to the pentagon, but, unlike the first two, the patterns involved in the construction of pentagonal numbers are not rotationally symmetrical. The nth pentagonal number pn is the number of distinct dots in a pattern of dots consisting of the outlines of regular pentagons with sides up to n dots, when the pentagons are overlaid so that they share one vertex. For instance, the third one is formed from outlines comprising 1, 5 and 10 dots, but the 1, and 3 of the 5, coincide with 3 of the 10 – leaving 12 distinct dots, 10 in the form of a pentagon, and 2 inside.
In mathematics, a heptagonal number is a figurate number that is constructed by combining heptagons with ascending size. The n-th heptagonal number is given by the formula
In mathematics, an octagonal number is a figurate number that gives the number of points in a certain octagonal arrangement. The octagonal number for n is given by the formula 3n2 − 2n, with n > 0. The first few octagonal numbers are
In mathematics, a pyramid number, or square pyramidal number, is a natural number that counts the stacked spheres in a pyramid with a square base. The study of these numbers goes back to Archimedes and Fibonacci. They are part of a broader topic of figurate numbers representing the numbers of points forming regular patterns within different shapes.
In number theory, an octahedral number is a figurate number that represents the number of spheres in an octahedron formed from close-packed spheres. The nth octahedral number can be obtained by the formula:
A centeredtriangular number is a centered figurate number that represents an equilateral triangle with a dot in the center and all its other dots surrounding the center in successive equilateral triangular layers.
In number theory, a pentatope number is a number in the fifth cell of any row of Pascal's triangle starting with the 5-term row 1 4 6 4 1, either from left to right or from right to left. It is named because it represents the number of 3-dimensional unit spheres which can be packed into a pentatope of increasing side lengths.
In geometry, a circumscribed sphere of a polyhedron is a sphere that contains the polyhedron and touches each of the polyhedron's vertices. The word circumsphere is sometimes used to mean the same thing, by analogy with the term circumcircle. As in the case of two-dimensional circumscribed circles (circumcircles), the radius of a sphere circumscribed around a polyhedron P is called the circumradius of P, and the center point of this sphere is called the circumcenter of P.
A regular dodecahedron or pentagonal dodecahedron is a dodecahedron composed of regular pentagonal faces, three meeting at each vertex. It is an example of Platonic solids, described as cosmic stellation by Plato in his dialogues, and it was used as part of Solar System proposed by Johannes Kepler. However, the regular dodecahedron, including the other Platonic solids, has already been described by other philosophers since antiquity.
In polyhedral combinatorics, a branch of mathematics, Steinitz's theorem is a characterization of the undirected graphs formed by the edges and vertices of three-dimensional convex polyhedra: they are exactly the 3-vertex-connected planar graphs. That is, every convex polyhedron forms a 3-connected planar graph, and every 3-connected planar graph can be represented as the graph of a convex polyhedron. For this reason, the 3-connected planar graphs are also known as polyhedral graphs.
In geometric graph theory, a branch of mathematics, a polyhedral graph is the undirected graph formed from the vertices and edges of a convex polyhedron. Alternatively, in purely graph-theoretic terms, the polyhedral graphs are the 3-vertex-connected, planar graphs.
In the mathematics of figurate numbers, the cannonball problem asks which numbers are both square and square pyramidal. The problem can be stated as: given a square arrangement of cannonballs, for what size squares can these cannonballs also be arranged into a square pyramid. Equivalently, which squares can be represented as the sum of consecutive squares, starting from 1.
In mathematics, a centered tetrahedral number is a centered figurate number that represents a tetrahedron. That is, it counts the dots in a three-dimensional dot pattern with a single dot surrounded by tetrahedral shells. The th centered tetrahedral number, starting at for a single dot, is:
In mathematics, an icosahedral number is a figurate number that represents an icosahedron. The nth icosahedral number is given by the formula
In three-dimensional hyperbolic geometry, an ideal polyhedron is a convex polyhedron all of whose vertices are ideal points, points "at infinity" rather than interior to three-dimensional hyperbolic space. It can be defined as the convex hull of a finite set of ideal points. An ideal polyhedron has ideal polygons as its faces, meeting along lines of the hyperbolic space.
Descartes on Polyhedra: A Study of the "De solidorum elementis" is a book in the history of mathematics, concerning the work of René Descartes on polyhedra. Central to the book is the disputed priority for Euler's polyhedral formula between Leonhard Euler, who published an explicit version of the formula, and Descartes, whose De solidorum elementis includes a result from which the formula is easily derived.