Space is not a passive vacuum, but has properties that impose

powerful constraints on any structure that inhabits it.

---Arthur Loeb

Polyhedra have an enormous aesthetic appeal and the subject is fun and easy to learn on one's own. One can appreciate the beauty of this image without knowing exactly what its name means --- the compound of the snub disicosidodecahedron and its dual hexagonal hexecontahedron --- but the more you know about polyhedra, the more beauty you will see.

This site is a free self-contained easy-to-explore tutorial, reference work, and object library for people interested in polyhedra. You may choose to simply view the virtual objects for their timeless, serene aesthetics, or to read the related mathematical background material at various levels of depth. Of course, as an academic type, I feel obliged to include a few exercises. And as it says in the textbooks, you'll learn a lot more if you work on the exercises yourself before looking at the solutions.

I believe the best way to learn about polyhedra is to make your own paper models or other models. The second best is to play with a set someone else has made. You can do that here because you can look at, move, and spin these models which I have made for you. And in one respect, virtual models have an advantage: you can travel inside them to gain a perspective not possible in paper models. After exploring my virtual models, I hope you choose to make some of your own paper models.

This work is complementary to my Pavilion of Polyhedreality, which you may wish to visit to find additional information on polyhedra and links to other related material. You may also like my polyhedra-based geometric sculpture.