Re: regular polyhedrons

["pedagoguery" <tupper@peda.com>]

--- In lojban@yahoogroups.com, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> On Sat, May 22, 2004, xahlee.org wrote:
>> a friend wanted to know how to say "great dodecahedron"
>> in lojban.
>> 
>> So, how does one say the five regular solids?
>> 
>> tetrahedron
>> cube/hexahedron
>> octahedron
>> dodecahedron
>> icosahedron
> 
> The standard trick, IIRC, is to do things like vonkubli, which
> would have the place structure:
> 
> x1 is a four-sided polygon of dimensions x2 (def. 3)
> 
> However, for what you want vonynickubli is better:
> 
> x1 is a four-sided polygon of dimensions x2 (def. 3) with
> regularity property x3 (def. all sides same length, all
> angles equal)
> 
> That's just off the top of my head, though.

Thanks. I'm Xah's friend :-)

The Lojban dictionary I have lists "kubli" as being a regular 
polyhedron --- is this correct? If it is, I'm not sure what the "nic" 
signfies in "vonynickubli".

Does "kubli" imply convexity, or some other property beyond 
regularity? If not, there are 4 candidates for the 12-sided regular 
polyhedron. "Regular polyhedron" in modern use doesn't 
typically imply convexity. (There are 9 regular polyhedra, 5 of 
which are convex.)

Comments? Why is "vonkubli" preferable to "kubli fi vo"?