2539. The Dual Polyhedral Compound: Great Icosahedron + Great Stellated Dodecahedron.

{3,
5/2} + {5/2, 3}
Author(s): H. Martyn Cundy
Source: The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 39, No. 329 (Sep., 1955), pp. 222-224
Published by: The Mathematical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3608759
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222 THE MATHEMATICAL GAZETTE

circles in Case 3 (the other cases do not arise). The properties of paragraphs
1 to 3 are then standard text-book exercises: simple proofs of those of para-
graphs 4 and 5 are incorporated in the author's previous paper.
H. GWYNEDD GREEN

2539. The dual polyhedral compound: Great Icosahedron +Great Stellated

Dodecahedron. {3, 5/2} + {5/2, 3}.
Of the nine regular polyhedra, one (the tetrahedron) is self-dual, and the
remainder can be grouped in dual pairs. Each dual pair can be placed to-
gether in such a way that they are polar reciprocals with respect to a sphere
touching their edges; the edges of each polyhedron then bisect those of the

B C
L F M

D
FIG. 1.

AB =AC =D = CD, LBAC =36?;

BF =FC = C=GE = FH, BK =KL =MH =HC= HG=N ;
DO=BC; CGN=60?= LCDO, L GEN=22? 14'.

other at right angles. Five dual compounds can thus be constructed: (1) two
tetrahedra; (2) cube + octahedron; (3) dodecahedron + icosahedron; (4)
great dodecahedron + small stellated dodecahedron; and (5) great icosa-
hedron + great stellated dodecahedron. I have elsewhere given details of the
construction of the first four of these (Cundy and Rollett, Mathematical

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 MATHEMATICAL NOTES 223

Models, p. 124). The purpose of this note is to describe the construction of

the fifth.
Mr. Dorman Luke of Florida very kindly sent me details of a similar com-
pound made by him, also described below, which has the same edges as (5).
From this it was easy to derive the net for the construction of the dual
compound itself.
Fig. 1 shows in a single diagram parts of the faces of the great stellated
dodecahedron and the great icosahedron in their correct proportion. The
external elements of the net of the dual compound are shaded. Fig. 2 shows

FIG. 2.

A B

20 of these required. Score internal 12 of these required. Score full

lines before folding. lines on front, dotted lines on
back.

the two different units of the net. The compound can be constructed from
20 A units and 12 B units. In fact, I made the complete great stellated
dodecahedron from 20 trihedra, and stuck on the 12 B units in the depressions
between its points.
Fig. 4 shows the corresponding faces of Mr. Luke's compound. This is the
pair, great stellated dodecahedron + small stellated dodecahedron, which has
the same edges but the planes and vertices are not reciprocal. It makes an
effective model in two colours. The faces of the basic dodecahedra are
shaded, and also the external elements of the net of the two stellates. Fig. 3

FIG. 3.
A B

20 of these required 12 of these required.

shows the two different units of the net; again 20 A units and 12 B units
are needed, and a very satisfactory model can be made in this way. It is an
interesting fact that if either model is held with two trihedral vertices upper-
most in a horizontal line, the remaining vertices of the compound fall into
horizontal planes containing 6, 4, 8, 4, 6, 2 vertices respectively. Reciprocally,

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224 THE MATHEMATICAL GAZETTE

A
A

FIG. 4.

Letters as in Fig. 1. CP =PQ =JCS.

Core-face and element of great stellated dodecahedron hatched.
Core-face and element of small stellated dodecahedron stippled.

the planes of the faces meet by 6, 4, 8, 4, 6 in points of a vertical line, which

the reader (with the model before him) will be able to identify.
H. MARTYN CUNDY.

2540. On even distribution of numbers.

In that classic of the game, Why You Lose at Bridge, the lamented S. J.
Simon tells how he discovered that the best way to deal with a bid which he
suspected of being an attempt to bluff him was to treat it as if it was genuine.
I am sure Mr. Hope-Jones is far too old a bird to have been caught in the
snare in which he invites us (Note 2343, XXXVII, p. 203) to watch him
fluttering, but for the benefit of fledgling readers I propose to take him at his
word. The solution of his puzzle is in an obvious question: Is the number
of numbers with which we are dealing finite or infinite?
In an infinite field, any estimate of the ratio of a part to the whole by enum-
eration is nonsense; none of us to-day leads paradoxes into theorems of the
familiar type that the number of the integers 1, 2, 3, ... is the same as the
number of the even integers 2, 4, 6, .... An estimate by integration embodies,
as Mr. Hope-Jones points out, a postulate of uniformity which may be chal-

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