Platonic solid

noun

Geometry.

1. one of the five regular polyhedrons: tetrahedron, octahedron, hexahedron, icosahedron, or dodecahedron.

Platonic solid

noun

1. Also called (esp formerly): Platonic body. any of the five possible regular polyhedra: cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, and dodecahedron

Word History and Origins

Origin of Platonic solid¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Word History and Origins

Origin of Platonic solid¹

C17: named after _Plato ¹ , who was the first to list them

Example Sentences

Figure 1 | The assembly of proteins into Platonic and Archimedean geometries. a, Platonic solids are a family of symmetrical 3D shapes that includes the cube.

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Dr. Curry’s favorite theorem is the classification of the Platonic solids.

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Like Platonic solids, rigid objects are typically rare, and sometimes theoretical objects can be so rigid they don’t exist — mathematical unicorns.

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Johannes Kepler famously fixated on a model of the solar system based on the regularity of the Platonic solids.

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He moves on to survey the forgotten 3-D Platonic solids, namely, Kepler–Poinsot polyhedrons, such as the small stellated dodecahedron, known to have been depicted by a Venetian mosaic artist as early as 1430.

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