Convex Polyhedra with Regular Faces

An interesting set of geometric figures is composed of the convex polyhedra in Euclidean 3-space whose faces are regular polygons (not necessarily all of the same kind). A polyhedron with regular faces is uniform if it has symmetry operations taking a given vertex into each of the other vertices in turn (5, p. 402). If in addition all the faces are alike, the polyhedron is regular. That there are just five convex regular polyhedra—the so-called Platonic solids—was proved by Euclid in the thirteenth book of the Elements (10, pp. 467-509). Archimedes is supposed to have described thirteen other uniform, “semi-regular” polyhedra, but his work on the subject has been lost.