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Ad Quadratum Construction and Study of the Regular Polyhedra

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35<br />

Ratio <strong>of</strong> Intersphere to Circumsphere Radii<br />

Besides <strong>the</strong> insphere just described, ano<strong>the</strong>r sphere can be considered in relation to <strong>the</strong><br />

platonic polyhedra -–<strong>the</strong> intermediate sphere or intersphere 13 . This sphere is defined by<br />

<strong>the</strong> midpoints <strong>of</strong> each edge <strong>of</strong> a platonic polyhedron, marking <strong>the</strong> intercept <strong>of</strong><br />

interpenetrating duals.<br />

The radius <strong>of</strong> this intersphere can be readily calculated for each polyhedron.<br />

Let ri be <strong>the</strong> radius <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> intersphere.<br />

Referring to fig. 5, which applies to all <strong>the</strong> regular convex polyhedra, <strong>and</strong> represents one<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> lateral faces <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pyramids making up each polyhedron, it is seen that <strong>the</strong> radius<br />

C ˆ i<br />

C ˆ i<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> intersphere will be CJ <strong>and</strong> in all cases, CJ ri R cos ; where here is half<br />

2 2<br />

<strong>the</strong> internal angle <strong>of</strong> a particular polyhedron.<br />

From <strong>the</strong> identity cos A 1<br />

1cos A<br />

we <strong>the</strong>refore obtain for each polyhedron, in<br />

2 2<br />

turn:<br />

Tetrahedron:<br />

Cube:<br />

Octahedron:<br />

ri<br />

Tˆ<br />

i 1 1 1<br />

cos 1<br />

<br />

R 2 2 3 3<br />

ri<br />

Cˆ<br />

i 1 1 <br />

cos 1<br />

<br />

R 2 2 3 <br />

ri O ˆ i<br />

cos<br />

R 2<br />

but sin ˆ<br />

O i 1 cos ˆ<br />

O i 0<br />

13 Kappraff, Jay: Connection, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1991, p. 266.<br />

2<br />

3<br />

3<br />

3

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