Regular Polytopes in Nature
For examples of polygons in nature, see:
Each of the Platonic solids occurs naturally in one form or another:
Higher polytopes can obviously not exist in a three-dimensional world. However this might not rule them out altogether. In cosmology and in string theory, physicists commonly model the Universe as having many more dimensions. It is possible that the Universe itself has the form of some higher polytope, regular or otherwise. Astronomers have even searched the sky in the last few years, for tell-tale signs of a few regular candidates, so far without definite results.
Read more about this topic: Regular Polytope
Famous quotes containing the words regular and/or nature:
““I couldn’t afford to learn it,” said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. “I only took the regular course.”
“What was that?” inquired Alice.
“Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied; “and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
“I never heard of ‘Uglification,’” Alice ventured to say.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“One of the most significant effects of age-segregation in our society has been the isolation of children from the world of work. Whereas in the past children not only saw what their parents did for a living but even shared substantially in the task, many children nowadays have only a vague notion of the nature of the parent’s job, and have had little or no opportunity to observe the parent, or for that matter any other adult, when he is fully engaged in his work.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)