Symmetry

Abstract

Apolyhedron is the formal name for a solid bounded by plane polygons. This definition may seem rather abstract, but polyhedra are simple objects. They appear everywhere in our man-made, artificial world. An everyday example of a polyhedron is a breakfast cereal box: each face of the box is a rectangle (plane polygons with four edges), and the rectangles are joined together at the edges of the box so that it is closed. It is not difficult to see that we can construct a limitless number of different polyhedra. The regular polyhedra, though, are different.

Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature.

Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae