Platonic solid the inradius "r". That is, The following table lists the various radii of the Platonic solids together with their surface area and volume. The overall size is fixed by taking the edge length, "a", to be equal to 2. The constants "φ" and "ξ" in the above are given by Among the Platonic solids, either the dodecahedron or the icosahedron may be seen as the best approximation to the sphere. The icosahedron has the largest number of faces and the largest dihedral angle, it hugs its inscribed sphere the most tightly, and its surface area to volume ratio is closest
Surface tension given volume. The equivalence of measurement of energy per unit area to force per unit length can be proven by dimensional analysis. If no force acts normal to a tensioned surface, the surface must remain flat. But if the pressure on one side of the surface differs from pressure on the other side, the pressure difference times surface area results in a normal force. In order for the surface tension forces to cancel the force due to pressure, the surface must be curved. The diagram shows how surface curvature of a tiny patch of surface leads to a net component