Icosahedron if rotated

Geometry Level 5

An icosahedron is a regular polyhedron with twenty faces, all of which are equilateral triangles. If an icosahedron is rotated by θ \theta degrees around an axis that passes through two opposite vertices so that it occupies exactly the same region of space as before, what is the smallest possible positive value of θ \theta ?

  • Submit your answer in degrees.


The answer is 72.

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2 solutions

Solution 1 \Large \displaystyle \text{Solution }1 Euler's Formula tells us that V E + F = 2 V - E + F = 2 , where an icosahedron has V V vertices, E E edges, and F F faces. We're told that F = 20 F = 20 . Each triangle has 3 edges and every edge is common to 2 triangles, so E = 20 × 3 2 = 30. E = \dfrac{20 \times 3}{2} = 30. Additionally, each triangle has 3 vertices, so if every vertex is common to n triangles, then V = 20 × 3 n = 60 n V = \dfrac{20 \times 3}{n} = \dfrac{60}{n} . Plugging this into the formula, we have

60 n 30 + 20 = 2 60 n = 12 n = 5 \dfrac{60}{n} - 30 + 20 = 2 \implies \dfrac{60}{n} = 12 \implies n = 5

Again this shows that the rotation is 36 0 5 = 7 2 \dfrac{360^{\circ}}{5} = \color{#D61F06}{\boxed{72^{\circ}}} .

Solution 2 \Large \displaystyle \text{Solution }2

Because this polyhedron is regular, all vertices must look the same. Let’s consider just one vertex. Each triangle has a vertex angle of 6 0 60^{\circ} , so we must have fewer than 6 6 triangles; if we had 6 6 , there would be 36 0 360^{\circ} at each vertex and you wouldn’t be able to fold the polyhedron up. It’s easy to see that we need at least 3 triangles at each vertex, and this gives a triangular pyramid with only 4 faces. Having 4 triangles meeting at each vertex gives an octahedron with 8 faces. Therefore, an icosahedron has 5 triangles meeting at each vertex, so rotating by 36 0 5 = 7 2 \dfrac{360^{\circ}}{5} = \color{#D61F06}{\boxed{72^{\circ}}} gives another identical icosahedron.

Great!. Nice problem (+1)

Abhay Tiwari - 5 years ago

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Five triangles meet at the vertex. So rotating by 360/5= 7 2 o \Large \color{#D61F06}{72^o} , each triangle would fit exactly into its next forward friend.

This is the easiest way to solve it! We only need to look 'along the axis of rotation' to get this view.

Ujjwal Rane - 2 years, 10 months ago

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