the greek phlosopher plato
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There are 5 platonic solids. They are: Tetrahedron, Octahedron, Icosahedron, Cube, and Dodecahedron
There are 5 platonic solids which are the only 5 regular polyhedra (possible).Plato attributed 4 of them to the 4 elements:Fire ≡ TetrahedronEarth ≡ CubeAir ≡ OctahedronWater ≡ IcosahedronAristotle added the fifth element "Ether" saying the heavens were made of it; he did not associate the fifth platonic solid, the Dodecahedron, to it.
The regular tetrahedron - one of the 5 platonic solids.
Answering your questions one at a time.1 - What is a platonic solid?A platonic solid is one with all faces congruent polygons, meaning that they all have the same number of sides, vertices and angle size.2 - How many are there?There are only and exactly five.3 - What are their names?TetrahedronCube (but when talking about Platonic solids, it is commonly referred to as a "hexahedron").OctahedronDodecahedronIcosahedronNote: These individual platonic solids can be identified by their unique Schlafli Symbol. This is demonstrated through the following:{p,q}p = Number of vertices at each faceq = Number of faces at each vertexSo for a dodecahedron, the Shlafli Symbol would be {5,3}, because a pentagon has five {5, or p} vertices, and at any individual vertex three {3, or q} faces meet.Understand? Great!
First, consider that at each vertex (point) at least three faces must come together, for if only two came together they would collapse against one another and we would not get a solid. Second, observe that the sum of the interior angles of the faces meeting at each vertex must be less than 360°, for otherwise they would not all fit together.