Kepler-Poinsot solids

In the great stellated dodecahedron and the small stellated dodecahedron, the faces are pentagrams. It is easier to see which parts of the exterior belong to which pentagram if you look at a six-colored model of the great stellated dodecahedron and a six-colored model of the small stellated dodecahedron. The center of each pentagram is hidden inside the polyhedron. These two polyhedra were described by Johannes Kepler in 1619, and he deserves credit for first understanding them mathematically, but a 16th century drawing by Jamnitzer is very similar to the former and a 15th century mosaic attributed to Uccello illustrates the latter. These two polyhedra have three and five pentagrams, respectively, meeting at each vertex. Because the faces intersect each other, parts of each face are hidden by other faces, and you need to see that the visible portions of the faces are not the complete faces. In the great icosahedron and great dodecahedron (described by Louis Poinsot in 1809, although Jamnitzer made a picture of the great dodecahedron in 1568) the faces (20 triangles and 12 pentagons, respectively) which meet at each vertex "go around twice" and intersect each other, in a manner which is the 3D analog to what happens in 2D with a pentagram. If you slice the polyhedron near a vertex, you'll see a pentagram cross section as the vertex figure. For example, this cutaway view of the great dodecahedron shows how the five pentagons which meet at a vertex pass through each other in the manner of a pentagram. Study the virtual models to see this. To emphasize that these polyhedra are made of large convex faces, it helps to look at a five-color model of the great icosahedron and a six-color model of the great dodecahedron.

Together, the Platonic solids and these Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra form the set of 9 regular polyhedra. Cauchy first proved that no other polyhedra can exist with identical regular faces and identical regular vertices. Here are some relationships you should observe:
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The great dodecahedron has the same vertices and edges as the icosahedron. The small stellated dodecahedron has the same vertices and edges as the great icosahedron. These both have the same vertices (but not edges) as the icosahedron. The great stellated dodecahedron has the same vertices (but not edges) as the dodecahedron. All four have the same symmetry axes and symmetry planes as the icosahedron and dodecahedron.

Each of these polyhedra is related to the dodecahedron or icosahedron in another way as well. If you travel to their centermost region you will find either a dodecahedron or an icosahedron.

Pentagrams
Pentagrams are "five-pointed stars." They are regular polygons with five vertices and five edges; that's all. The sides just happen to cross each other at five points of intersection which outline the small interior pentagon, but those are not vertices and the smaller segments are not complete sides. Mathematically, the pentagram is special for being the simplest nonconvex regular polygon.

The Kepler Solids

One of the first people in modern times to study polygons, polyhedra, and crystals was the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the two solids above. In each case, faces of a dodecahedron are extended outward into a star. Both are stellated dodecahedra; they are called "small" and "great" to distinguish them. The small stellated dodecahedron has twelve five-sided pyramids built on the faces of a dodecahedron. All the triangles are isoceles 36-72-72 degree triangles. Each star face has a pyramid sticking out of its center. The faces are colored to show the stars. The great stellated dodecahedron also has twelve interpenetrating star faces. It can be thought of as an icosahedron with three-sided pyramids on each face. Again, the triangles are isoceles 3672-72 triangles. The star faces are harder to see because each star has a rosette of five pyramids in its center. The diagram is colored to show the stars.

The Poinsot Solids

The French mathematician Poinsot discovered these elegant shapes. The great dodecahedron has twelve interpenetrating pentagonal faces, each with a five-pointed star in relief. The solid has the edges and vertices of an icosahedron, but instead of triangular faces has triangular dimples. The faces in the dimples are isoceles 36-108-36 degree triangles. The great icosahedron has twenty equilateral triangle faces that are somewhat hard to see because of their complex intersection. The overall shape is like a small stellated dodecahedron with star-shaped pyramids.

Dodecahedron

Here we see a dodecahedron face (blue) with the intersections of all other faces indicated. This is a common way to show the possible stellations of a solid. We see that there are three distinct groups of cells.

The three stellations of the dodecahedron are non-convex regular polyhedra and are shown above. The first is the small stellated dodecahedron. The small stellated dodecahedron is formed by placing 12 congruent pyramids on the faces of the dodecahedron. Next is the great dodecahedron.. This is obtained by continuing the star planes of the small stellated dodecahedron outward until they meet to form the next set of pentagons. These continuations form 30 wedges on the small stellated dodecahedron. If we extend these pentagons, we get the stellation on the right, the great stellated dodecahedron. These extensions shape 20 spikes onto the great dodecahedron to form the great stellated dodecahedron. Notice that the great stellated dodecahedron has the same number of vertices and vertex arrangement as the dodecahedron.

Kepler-Poinsot Solids
The stellations of a dodecahedron are often referred to as KeplerSolids. The Kepler-Poinsot solids or polyhedra is a popular name for the regular star polyhedra. Each has faces which are congruent regular convex polygons or star polygons and has the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. There are four Kepler-Poinsot solids:

Small stellated dodecahedron Great stellated dodecahedron Great dodecahedron Great icosahedron.

In geometry, the great stellated dodecahedron is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron. It is one of four nonconvex regular polyhedra. It is composed of 12 intersecting pentagrammic faces, with three pentagrams meeting at each vertex. It shares its vertex arrangement with the regular dodecahedron, as well as being a stellation of a (smaller) dodecahedron. It is the only dodecahedral stellation with this property, apart from the dodecahedron itself. Its dual, the great icosahedron, is related in a similar fashion to the icosahedron. Shaving the triangular pyramids off results in an icosahedron. If the pentagrammic faces are broken into triangles, it is topologically related to the triakis icosahedron, with the same face connectivity, but much taller isosceles triangle faces.

The stellation facets for construction are:

[edit] Net
The net of a great stellated dodecahedron looks somewhat like this:

Fold forward on the short lines, and backwards on the long lines.

In geometry, the small stellated dodecahedron is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron. It is one of four nonconvex regular polyhedra. It is composed of 12 pentagrammic faces, with five pentagrams meeting at each vertex. It shares the same vertex arrangement as the convex regular icosahedron. It also shares the same edge arrangement as the great icosahedron. It is considered the first of three stellations of the dodecahedron. If the pentagrammic faces are considered as 5 triangular faces, it shares the same surface topology as the pentakis dodecahedron, but with much taller isosceles triangle faces.

A transparent model of the small stellated dodecahedron (See also Animated The stellation facets for construction are:

[edit] Paper construction

Handmade small stellated dodecahedra

Small stellated dodecahedra can be constructed out of paper or cardstock by connecting together 12 five-sided isosceles pyramids in the same manner as the pentagons in a regular dodecahedron. With an opaque material, this visually represents the exterior portion of each pentagrammic face. A net for creating a small stellated dodecahedron might look something like this:

The Kepler-Poinsot Polyhedra

A polyhedron is regular if the faces are a single kind of regular polygon and the vertices are all the same. The 5 Platonic Solids are the convex regular polyhedrons. If we remove the constraint of convexity it turns out that there are only four more solids that can be added to the list; these are known as the Kepler-Poinsot Polyhedra. It was Johann Kepler who, in 1619, first realized that 12 pentagrams can be joined in pairs along their edges in two different ways that result in regular solids. If five pentagrams meet at each vertex, the resulting solid has come to be known as the small stellated dodecahedron.

Small Stellated Dodecahedron If three pentagrams meet at each vertex, the resulting solid is now named the great stellated dodecahedron (The perhaps surprising reason for these names will be made evident shortly).

Great Stellated Dodecahedron

Two centuries later, in 1809, Louis Poinsot discovered two more non-convex regular solids: the great dodecahedron and the great icosahedron. The twelve faces of the great dodecahedron are pentagons (as with the ordinary dodecahedron), but which intersect each other. Likewise, the faces of the great icosahedron are the 20 triangles of the ordinary icosahedron, but intersecting each other. The great dodecahedron is a most pleasing and intriguing solid, giving the illusion of a pentagonal star embossed on each pentagon; each star shares each of its arms with another, so that one star disappears as soon as you bring your attention to another!

Great Dodecahedron It has been proven that these four solids, together with the 5 platonic solids, are the only regular solids possible. Another wonderful truth is that the Kepler solids are the duals of the Poinsot solids!

Great Icosahedron

It was not until 1811 that the French mathematician Augustin Cauchy showed that the Kepler-Poinsot solids are stellated forms of the dodecahedron or the icosahedron. It was this insight that led to the names for these solids that we use today.