Lesson plan
Regular polytope
In mathematics, a regular polytope is a polytope whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags, thus giving it the highest degree of symmetry. In particular, all its elements or -faces (for all , where is the dimension of the polytope) — cells, faces and so on — are also transitive on the symmetries of the polytope, and are themselves regular polytopes of dimension . Regular polytopes are the generalised analog in any number of dimensions of regular polygons (for example, the square or the regular pentagon) and regular polyhedra (for example, the cube). The strong symmetry of the regular polytopes gives them an aesthetic quality that interests both mathematicians and non-mathematicians. Classically, a regular polytope in dimensions may be defined as having regular facets ( -faces) and regular vertex figures. These two conditions are sufficient to ensure that all faces are alike and all vertices are alike. Note, however, that this definition does not work for abstract polytopes. A regular polytope can be represented by a Schläfli symbol of the form with regular facets as and regular vertex figures as
Article summary
In mathematics, a regular polytope is a polytope whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags, thus giving it the highest degree of symmetry. In particular, all its elements or -faces (for all , where is the dimension of the polytope) — cells, faces and so on — are also transitive on the symmetries of the polytope, and are themselves regular polytopes of dimension . Regular polytopes are the generalised analog in any number of dimensions of regular polygons (for example, the square or the regular pentagon) and regular polyhedra (for example, the cube). The strong symmetry of the regular polytopes gives them an aesthetic quality that interests both mathematicians and non-mathematicians. Classically, a regular polytope in dimensions may be defined as having regular facets ( -faces) and regular vertex figures. These two conditions are sufficient to ensure that all faces are alike and all vertices are alike. Note, however, that this definition does not work for abstract polytopes. A regular polytope can be represented by a Schläfli symbol of the form with regular facets as and regular vertex figures as
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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