The first thing to know, before the meaning of the term dodecahedron, is its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it is a word that derives from Greek, exactly from "dodekaedros", which is the result of the union of two clearly differentiated lexical components:
-The noun "dodekas", which can be translated as "twelve".
-The name "hedra", which is synonymous with "side".
The concept is used in the field of geometry to name a solid that has twelve faces .
Let us remember that a solid is a three-dimensional object : that is, a body. In the case of the dodecahedron, it is a polyhedron since it is a solid with flat faces.
When the dodecahedron is composed of faces that are regular pentagons , it is precisely classified as regular . This dodecahedron is also convex . By the Euler characteristic , the sum of the number of vertices and the number of faces of a regular dodecahedron is equal to 2 plus the number of edges.
The dice used in role-playing games , for example, are usually regular dodecahedra. On these twelve-sided dice, the face with the number 1 (the lowest figure) is opposed to the face with the number 12 (the highest figure). When adding the opposite faces, in fact, we will always obtain 13 as a result.
In the same way, we cannot forget to talk about a very interesting dodecahedron. This is the so-called Megaminx, which is a version of the well-known Rubik's cube, but in the shape of a dodecahedron. Specifically, it is made up of a total of fifty moving pieces, it is considered to be a puzzle and is made up of 20 edges, 20 corners and a total of 12 central pieces, one on each side, of a different color.
It also goes by the name of Hungarian Supernova and the aforementioned central pieces only rotate around their own axis, although this does not happen in other pieces.
Mixing all the colors and then rearranging them by moving the pieces is the goal of this dodecahedron, which can be found for sale in two different varieties. Firstly, it can be purchased in only six different colors and secondly, it is also for sale in different colors.
The person who holds the world record for having rearranged all the pieces of the dodecahedron the fastest is Juan Pablo Huanqui, of Peruvian origin, who did it in just 27.81 seconds.
There are many other kinds of dodecahedra. The blunt dodecahedron is a body that is part of the Archimedean solids (convex polyhedra with regular polygons of at least two types as faces) and that has twelve pentagonal and eighty triangular faces.
The truncated dodecahedron , for its part, is an Archimedean solid with the vertex of each dodecahedron cut. Among the so-called Johnson solids , on the other hand, appear the triaugmented dodecahedron , the parabiaugmented dodecahedron , the triaugmented truncated dodecahedron , the metabiaugmented truncated dodecahedron and the parabiaugmented truncated dodecahedron , among others.