Stand the dodecahedron on
one face and imagine projecting the other faces down on to the plane of that
face. Each will meet it in a line. The lines will join at the points such as
A, B, C, D.
The diagram in the plane is called the stellation diagram.
If you project the faces from the plane they meet at E, forming a pentagonal
pyramid standing on the face. In this is a way you can form a new polyhedron from the original one.
Alternatively you can select areas of the stellation diagram to form the faces of
a new polyhedron.
The diagrams below show which areas to select to make the polyhedra
shown in the row beneath them.
Original dodecahedron | First stellation | Second stellation |
Notice how the shaded areas in the upper row (the stellation diagrams)
correspond to the
faces of the new 3D solids shown blue in the models below.
The dodecahedron is smaller than its stellations.
There is a third stellation which is much bigger than the others and is not
shown here.
Click here to go to the polyhedron examples page
Click here to go to Fortran Friends products