The Fifty-Nine Icosahedra is a book written and illustrated by H. S. M. Coxeter, P. Du Val, H. T. Flather and J. F. Petrie. It enumerates certain stellations of the regular convex or Platonic icosahedron, according to a set of rules put forward by J. C. P. Miller.
First published by the University of Toronto in 1938, a Second Edition reprint by Springer-Verlag followed in 1982. Tarquin's 1999 Third Edition included new reference material and photographs by K. and D. Crennell.
Although Miller did not contribute to the book directly, he was a close colleague of Coxeter and Petrie. His contribution is immortalised in his set of rules for defining which stellation forms should be considered "properly significant and distinct": [1]
Rules (i) to (iii) are symmetry requirements for the face planes. Rule (iv) excludes buried holes, to ensure that no two stellations look outwardly identical. Rule (v) prevents any disconnected compound of simpler stellations.
Coxeter was the main driving force behind the work. He carried out the original analysis based on Miller's rules, adopting a number of techniques such as combinatorics and abstract graph theory whose use in a geometrical context was then novel.
He observed that the stellation diagram comprised many line segments. He then developed procedures for manipulating combinations of the adjacent plane regions, to formally enumerate the combinations allowed under Miller's rules.
His graph, reproduced here, shows the connectivity of the various faces identified in the stellation diagram (see below). The Greek symbols represent sets of possible alternatives:
Du Val devised a symbolic notation for identifying sets of congruent cells, based on the observation that they lie in "shells" around the original icosahedron. Based on this he tested all possible combinations against Miller's rules, confirming the result of Coxeter's more analytical approach.
Flather's contribution was indirect: he made card models of all 59. When he first met Coxeter he had already made many stellations, including some "non-Miller" examples. He went on to complete the series of fifty-nine, which are preserved in the mathematics library of Cambridge University, England. The library also holds some non-Miller models, but it is not known whether these were made by Flather or by Miller's later students. [2]
John Flinders Petrie was a lifelong friend of Coxeter and had a remarkable ability to visualise four-dimensional geometry. He and Coxeter had worked together on many mathematical problems. His direct contribution to the fifty nine icosahedra was the exquisite set of three-dimensional drawings which provide much of the fascination of the published work.
For the Third Edition, Kate and David Crennell reset the text and redrew the diagrams. They also added a reference section containing tables, diagrams, and photographs of some of the Cambridge models (which at that time were all thought to be Flather's). Corrections to this edition have been published online. [3]
Before Coxeter, only Brückner and Wheeler had recorded any significant sets of stellations, although a few such as the great icosahedron had been known for longer. Since publication of The 59, Wenninger published instructions on making models of some; the numbering scheme used in his book has become widely referenced, although he only recorded a few stellations.
Index numbers are the Crennells' unless otherwise stated:
Crennell
Cells
Faces
Wenninger
Wheeler
Brückner
Remarks
Some images illustrate the mirror-image icosahedron with the f1 rather than the f1 cell.
Crennell | Cells | Faces | Wenninger | Wheeler | Brückner | Remarks | Face diagram | 3D |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | A | 0 | Icosahedron | 41 | The Platonic icosahedron | |||
2 | B | 1 | 26 Triakis icosahedron | 2 | Taf. VIII, Fig. 2 | First stellation of the icosahedron, small triambic icosahedron, or Triakisicosahedron | ||
3 | C | 2 | 23 Compound of five octahedra | 3 | Taf. IX, Fig. 6 | Regular compound of five octahedra | ||
4 | D | 3 4 | 4 | Taf. IX, Fig.17 | ||||
5 | E | 5 6 7 | ||||||
6 | F | 8 9 10 | 27 Second stellation | 19 | Second stellation of icosahedron | |||
7 | G | 11 12 | 41 Great icosahedron | 11 | Taf. XI, Fig. 24 | Great icosahedron | ||
8 | H | 13 | 42 Final stellation | 12 | Taf. XI, Fig. 14 | Final stellation of the icosahedron or Echidnahedron | ||
9 | e1 | 3' 5 | 37 Twelfth stellation | Twelfth stellation of icosahedron | ||||
10 | f1 | 5' 6' 9 10 | ||||||
11 | g1 | 10' 12 | 29 Fourth stellation | 21 | Fourth stellation of icosahedron | |||
12 | e1f1 | 3' 6' 9 10 | ||||||
13 | e1f1g1 | 3' 6' 9 12 | 20 | |||||
14 | f1g1 | 5' 6' 9 12 | ||||||
15 | e2 | 4' 6 7 | ||||||
16 | f2 | 7' 8 | 22 | |||||
17 | g2 | 8' 9'11 | ||||||
18 | e2f2 | 4' 6 8 | ||||||
19 | e2f2g2 | 4' 6 9' 11 | ||||||
20 | f2g2 | 7' 9' 11 | 30 Fifth stellation | Fifth stellation of icosahedron | ||||
21 | De1 | 4 5 | 32 Seventh stellation | 10 | Seventh stellation of icosahedron | |||
22 | Ef1 | 7 9 10 | 25 Compound of ten tetrahedra | 8 | Taf. IX, Fig. 3 | Regular compound of ten tetrahedra | ||
23 | Fg1 | 8 9 12 | 31 Sixth stellation | 17 | Taf. X, Fig. 3 | Sixth stellation of icosahedron | ||
24 | De1f1 | 4 6' 9 10 | ||||||
25 | De1f1g1 | 4 6' 9 12 | ||||||
26 | Ef1g1 | 7 9 12 | 28 Third stellation | 9 | Taf. VIII, Fig. 26 | Excavated dodecahedron | ||
27 | De2 | 3 6 7 | 5 | |||||
28 | Ef2 | 5 6 8 | 18 | Taf.IX, Fig. 20 | ||||
29 | Fg2 | 10 11 | 33 Eighth stellation | 14 | Eighth stellation of icosahedron | |||
30 | De2f2 | 3 6 8 | 34 Ninth stellation | 13 | Medial triambic icosahedron or Great triambic icosahedron | |||
31 | De2f2g2 | 3 6 9' 11 | ||||||
32 | Ef2g2 | 5 6 9' 11 | ||||||
33 | f1 | 5' 6' 9 10 | 35 Tenth stellation | Tenth stellation of icosahedron | ||||
34 | e1f1 | 3' 5 6' 9 10 | 36 Eleventh stellation | Eleventh stellation of icosahedron | ||||
35 | De1f1 | 4 5 6' 9 10 | ||||||
36 | f1g1 | 5' 6' 9 10'12 | ||||||
37 | e1f1g1 | 3' 5 6' 9 10'12 | 39 Fourteenth stellation | Fourteenth stellation of icosahedron | ||||
38 | De1f1g1 | 4 5 6' 9 10'12 | ||||||
39 | f1g2 | 5' 6'8'9' 10 11 | ||||||
40 | e1f1g2 | 3' 5 6'8'9' 10 11 | ||||||
41 | De1f1g2 | 4 5 6'8'9' 10 11 | ||||||
42 | f1f2g2 | 5' 6'7'9' 10 11 | ||||||
43 | e1f1f2g2 | 3' 5 6'7'9' 10 11 | ||||||
44 | De1f1f2g2 | 4 5 6'7'9' 10 11 | ||||||
45 | e2f1 | 4'5' 6 7 9 10 | 40 Fifteenth stellation | Fifteenth stellation of icosahedron | ||||
46 | De2f1 | 35' 6 7 9 10 | ||||||
47 | Ef1 | 5 6 7 9 10 | 24 Compound of five tetrahedra | 7 (6: left handed) | Taf. IX, Fig. 11 | Regular Compound of five tetrahedra (right handed) | ||
48 | e2f1g1 | 4'5' 6 7 9 10'12 | ||||||
49 | De2f1g1 | 35' 6 7 9 10'12 | ||||||
50 | Ef1g1 | 5 6 7 9 10'12 | ||||||
51 | e2f1f2 | 4'5' 6 8 9 10 | 38 Thirteenth stellation | Thirteenth stellation of icosahedron | ||||
52 | De2f1f2 | 35' 6 8 9 10 | ||||||
53 | Ef1f2 | 5 6 8 9 10 | 15 (16: left handed) | |||||
54 | e2f1f2g1 | 4'5' 6 8 9 10'12 | ||||||
55 | De2f1f2g1 | 35' 6 8 9 10'12 | ||||||
56 | Ef1f2g1 | 5 6 8 9 10'12 | ||||||
57 | e2f1f2g2 | 4'5' 6 9' 10 11 | ||||||
58 | De2f1f2g2 | 35' 6 9' 10 11 | ||||||
59 | Ef1f2g2 | 5 6 9' 10 11 |
In geometry, the regular icosahedron is a convex polyhedron that can be constructed from pentagonal antiprism by attaching two pentagonal pyramids with regular faces to each of its pentagonal faces, or by putting points onto the cube. The resulting polyhedron has 20 equilateral triangles as its faces, 30 edges, and 12 vertices. It is an example of a Platonic solid and of a deltahedron. The icosahedral graph represents the skeleton of a regular icosahedron.
In geometry, a Kepler–Poinsot polyhedron is any of four regular star polyhedra.
In geometry, a polyhedral compound is a figure that is composed of several polyhedra sharing a common centre. They are the three-dimensional analogs of polygonal compounds such as the hexagram.
In geometry, stellation is the process of extending a polygon in two dimensions, a polyhedron in three dimensions, or, in general, a polytope in n dimensions to form a new figure. Starting with an original figure, the process extends specific elements such as its edges or face planes, usually in a symmetrical way, until they meet each other again to form the closed boundary of a new figure. The new figure is a stellation of the original. The word stellation comes from the Latin stellātus, "starred", which in turn comes from the Latin stella, "star". Stellation is the reciprocal or dual process to faceting.
In geometry, a truncated icosidodecahedron, rhombitruncated icosidodecahedron, great rhombicosidodecahedron, omnitruncated dodecahedron or omnitruncated icosahedron is an Archimedean solid, one of thirteen convex, isogonal, non-prismatic solids constructed by two or more types of regular polygon faces.
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 equivalent definitions are used; a common one is that the faces are congruent regular polygons which are assembled in the same way around each vertex.
In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive—there is an isometry mapping any vertex onto any other. It follows that all vertices are congruent. Uniform polyhedra may be regular, quasi-regular, or semi-regular. The faces and vertices don't need to be convex, so many of the uniform polyhedra are also star polyhedra.
In geometry, the complete or final stellation of the icosahedron is the outermost stellation of the icosahedron, and is "complete" and "final" because it includes all of the cells in the icosahedron's stellation diagram. That is, every three intersecting face planes of the icosahedral core intersect either on a vertex of this polyhedron or inside of it. It was studied by Max Brückner after the discovery of Kepler–Poinsot polyhedron. It can be viewed as an irregular, simple, and star polyhedron.
In geometry, the great icosahedron is one of four Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra, with Schläfli symbol {3,5⁄2} and Coxeter-Dynkin diagram of . It is composed of 20 intersecting triangular faces, having five triangles meeting at each vertex in a pentagrammic sequence.
The compound of five tetrahedra is one of the five regular polyhedral compounds. This compound polyhedron is also a stellation of the regular icosahedron. It was first described by Edmund Hess in 1876.
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.
The compound of ten tetrahedra is one of the five regular polyhedral compounds. This polyhedron can be seen as either a stellation of the icosahedron or a compound. This compound was first described by Edmund Hess in 1876.
The compound of five octahedra is one of the five regular polyhedron compounds, and can also be seen as a stellation. It was first described by Edmund Hess in 1876. It is unique among the regular compounds for not having a regular convex hull.
In geometry, the small triambic icosahedron is a star polyhedron composed of 20 intersecting non-regular hexagon faces. It has 60 edges and 32 vertices, and Euler characteristic of −8. It is an isohedron, meaning that all of its faces are symmetric to each other. Branko Grünbaum has conjectured that it is the only Euclidean isohedron with convex faces of six or more sides, but the small hexagonal hexecontahedron is another example.
In geometry, a stellation diagram or stellation pattern is a two-dimensional diagram in the plane of some face of a polyhedron, showing lines where other face planes intersect with this one. The lines cause 2D space to be divided up into regions. Regions not intersected by any further lines are called elementary regions. Usually unbounded regions are excluded from the diagram, along with any portions of the lines extending to infinity. Each elementary region represents a top face of one cell, and a bottom face of another.
In geometry, the excavated dodecahedron is a star polyhedron that looks like a dodecahedron with concave pentagonal pyramids in place of its faces. Its exterior surface represents the Ef1g1 stellation of the icosahedron. It appears in Magnus Wenninger's book Polyhedron Models as model 28, the third stellation of icosahedron.
In geometry, an icosahedron is a polyhedron with 20 faces. The name comes from Ancient Greek εἴκοσι (eíkosi) 'twenty' and ἕδρα (hédra) 'seat'. The plural can be either "icosahedra" or "icosahedrons".