2.II.12G

Geometry | Part IB, 2008

Show that the area of a spherical triangle with angles α,β,γ\alpha, \beta, \gamma is α+β+γπ\alpha+\beta+\gamma-\pi. Hence derive the formula for the area of a convex spherical nn-gon.

Deduce Euler's formula FE+V=2F-E+V=2 for a decomposition of a sphere into FF convex polygons with a total of EE edges and VV vertices.

A sphere is decomposed into convex polygons, comprising mm quadrilaterals, nn pentagons and pp hexagons, in such a way that at each vertex precisely three edges meet. Show that there are at most 7 possibilities for the pair (m,n)(m, n), and that at least 3 of these do occur.

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