Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!sun!lionsgate!kevinwu From: kevinwu@lionsgate.Sun.COM (Kevin Wu) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Polygon Representation of a Sphere's Surface Summary: Symmetric polyhedra Message-ID: <95775@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 24 Mar 89 17:31:01 GMT References: <270@ai.etl.army.mil> <2908@kalliope.rice.edu> <3661@mit-amt> Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM Reply-To: kevinwu@sun.UUCP (Kevin Wu) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 16 In article <3661@mit-amt> djs@media-lab.media.mit.edu (David J. Sturman) writes: > It seems to me that this will give you a polyhedral approximation to the > sphere but NOT a regular polyhedron. David is correct. You can use group theory to prove that there exists no regular polyhedron with more than 20 facets. I think that the original poster really wanted a subjectively good polygonal approximation to a sphere, not necessarily a regular polyhedron. Subdividing the facets of a regular icosahedron as described earlier gives a polyhedron that looks pretty close to a sphere, especially with smooth shading. -- Kevin Wu Sun Microsystems, Inc. Internet: kevinwu@sun.com Mail Stop 8-01 UUCP: ...!sun!kevinwu