In geometry, a pentakis dodecahedron or kisdodecahedron is the polyhedron created by attaching a pentagonal pyramid to each face of a regular dodecahedron; that is, it is the Kleetope of the dodecahedron. This interpretation is expressed in its name. There are in fact several topologically equivalent but geometrically distinct kinds of pentakis dodecahedron, depending on the height of the pentagonal pyramids. These include:
The usual Catalan pentakis dodecahedron, a convex hexecontahedron with sixty isosceles triangular faces illustrated in the sidebar figure. It is a Catalan solid, dual to the truncated icosahedron, an Archimedean solid. The critical height of each of the pyramids above the faces of the original unit dodecahedron is
As the heights of the pentagonal pyramids are raised, at a certain point adjoining pairs of triangular faces merge to become rhombi, and the shape becomes a rhombic triacontahedron.
As the height is raised further, the shape becomes non-convex. In particular, an equilateral or deltahedron version of the pentakis dodecahedron, which has sixty equilateral triangular faces as shown in the adjoining figure, is slightly non-convex due to its taller pyramids.
Let be the golden ratio. The 12 points given by and cyclic permutations of these coordinates are the vertices of a regular icosahedron. Its dual regular dodecahedron, whose edges intersect those of the icosahedron at right angles, has as vertices the points together with the points and cyclic permutations of these coordinates. Multiplying all coordinates of the icosacahedron by a factor of gives a slightly smaller icosahedron. The 12 vertices of this icosahedron, together with the vertices of the dodecahedron, are the vertices of a pentakis dodecahedron centered at the origin. The length of its long edges equals. Its faces are acute isosceles triangles with one angle of and two of. The length ratio between the long and short edges of these triangles equals.
Chemistry
The pentakis dodecahedron in a model of buckminsterfullerene: each surface segment represents a carbon atom. Equivalently, a truncated icosahedron is a model of buckminsterfullerene, with each vertex representing a carbonatom.
Biology
The pentakis dodecahedron is also a model of some icosahedrally symmetric viruses, such as Adeno-associated virus. These have 60 symmetry related capsid proteins, which combine to make the 60 symmetrical faces of a pentakis dodecahedron.
Orthogonal projections
The pentakis dodecahedron has three symmetry positions, two on vertices, and one on a midedge:
The model for a campus arts workshop designed by Jeffrey Lindsay was actually a hemispherical pentakis dodecahedron https://books.google.com/books?id=JD8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA92&dq=jeffrey+lindsay&hl=en&ei=oF88Tv25F7OisQLGwbwt&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=jeffrey%20lindsay&f=false
The shape of the "Crystal Dome" used in the popular TV game showThe Crystal Maze was based on a pentakis dodecahedron.
In De Blob 2 in the Prison Zoo, domes are made up of parts of a Pentakis Dodecahedron. These Domes also appear whenever the player transforms on a dome in the Hypno Ray level.
Some Geodomes in which people play on are Pentakis Dodecahedra.
