U.S. scientists believe they have identified a fourth class of ‘equilateral convex polyhedra’ called Goldberg polyhedra (pictured left and right), having been inspired by naturally occurring shapes in the human eye. Their discovery could led to the identification of an infinite number of complex solid shapes
Ancient Greek mathematicians – most notably Plato – classified solid shapes thousands of years ago.Since then, remarkably few geometric ‘solid’ forms have been discovered and the last collection was identified 400 years ago. But now, U.S. scientists believe they have identified a fourth class of shape called a Goldberg polyhedra, which they is inspired by shapes in the human eye.
Mathematicians of University of California in Los Angeles were inspired by polyhedra structures in the human eye and came up with a mathematical explanation for the shapes.
The first type of solid shapes to be discovered are known as Platonic solids, which include the cube, the tetrahedron (a 3D form made up of four triangular faces), the octahedron (a 3D form made up of eight triangles), the dodecahedron (a 3D form made up of 12 sides) and the icosahedron (a form made up of 20 triangular faces and 30 edges).
All these shapes are highly regular and occur naturally.
Just two other types of solid shapes have been documented after these: Archimedean solids, which include the truncated icosahedron (a 32-faced solid shape), and incredibly complex 3D forms called Kepler solids, which were discovered 400 years ago and include the rhombic polyhedra.
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Source: Scientists discover first type of SHAPE in 400 years
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