Platonic solids/ The five elements.
A platonic solid has equal edges, every face is the same perfect polygon and every point is the same distance from the centre. Known as the five platonic solids, they were recognised in the British isles 2,000 years before Plato.
The first solid is a tetrahedron, with four vertices and four equilateral triangle, traditionally representing the elements of fire. The second solid is the octahedron, representing air. The cube is the third solid, eight vertices and six square faces, representing Earth. The fourth representing water.
The last and fifth element is the dodecahedron representing the mysterious fifth element aether. Aether in shorthand means spirit, but has lots of connotations. Philosophers say its an in-between element used to explain natural phenomena, such as gravity and the movement of light.
Plato was a philosopher, as well as a mathematician, in classical Greece. Plato considered geometry and number as the most reduced and essential and therefore the ideal, philosophical language.
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