Regular polytope impossible ("not constructible"). The simplest few regular polygons that are impossible to construct are the "n"-sided polygons with "n" equal to 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 18, 19, 21... Constructibility in this sense refers only to ideal constructions with ideal tools. Of course reasonably accurate approximations can be constructed by a range of methods; while theoretically possible constructions may be impractical. Euclid's "Elements" gave what amount to ruler-and-compass constructions for the five Platonic solids. (See, for example, Euclid's Elements.) However, the merely practical question of how one might draw a straight line in space, even with a ruler, might lead
Regular polyhedron five have C×S symmetry but can only be realised with half the symmetry, that is C×A or icosahedral symmetry. They are all topologically equivalent to toroids. Their construction, by arranging "n" faces around each vertex, can be repeated indefinitely as tilings of the hyperbolic plane. In the diagrams below, the hyperbolic tiling images have colors corresponding to those of the polyhedra images. The Petrie dual of a regular polyhedron is a regular map whose vertices and edges correspond to the vertices and edges of the original polyhedron, and whose faces are the set of skew Petrie polygons. The usual nine