How to make a soccer ball

Eulers relation for polyhedra and planar graphs

Bogdan Enescu1
Introduction
The Germany national soccer team reached the World Cup nal in 1982
but they were defeated by Italy 13. A year after that, the following problem was proposed at the national mathematical olympiad (Bundeswettbewerb
Mathematik):
The soccer balls surface is covered with black pentagons and white hexagons.
At the edges (sides) of every pentagon there are only hexagons. But at the edges
of every hexagon there are pentagons and hexagons alternately. Based on this
information, determine the number of pentagons and hexagons of the soccer
ball!
Now, the soccer player with some experience in solid geometry knows that
the model of the soccer ball is the truncated icosahedron, which is an Archimedean
solid2 . More precisely, one takes an icosahedron, that is, a Platonic solid with
20 triangular faces and 12 vertices (see Figure 1), and cuts each vertex with a
plane, thus obtaining 12 pentagons (see one of them in Figure 2). The remaining portions of the faces will be hexagons (Figure 3). Hence the answer: 12
pentagons and 20 hexagons.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Let us try another approach, more appropriate to someone who is not an

expert in solid geometry.
We will use a famous formula which algebraically connects the number of
vertices, edges, and faces of a convex polyhedron. This formula was discovered
by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, although it seems that it was
known to Ren Descartes some 120 years before.
1 "B.P.

Hasdeu" National College, Buz

a u, Romania
convex polyhedron composed of two or more types of regular polygons meeting in
identical vertices. They are distinct from the Platonic solids, which are composed of only one
type of regular polygon meeting in identical vertices.
2a

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

On November 14, 1750, in a letter to his friend, the number

theorist Christian Goldbach (16901764), Euler wrote, It astonishes
me that these general properties of solid geometry have not, as far
as I know, been noticed by anyone else.[2]
Let V , E, and F denote the number of vertices, edges, and faces of a convex
polyhedron. Then the following equality holds:
Eulers relation
V

E + F = 2:

Let us now return to the soccer ball. We will prove that the balls surface is
covered with 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons.
Our rst proof is based on a concept dened by R. Descartes: the angular
decit of a polyhedrons vertex. This is dened as the dierence between 360
and the sum of all plane angles at that vertex. Intuitively, the angular decit
measures how "pointy" is the respective vertex. For instance, in our case, the
angular decit is, at any vertex, 12 (see Figure 4).

Figure 4
Descartes obtained the following remarkable result:
Theorem 1. The sum of the angular decits of all the vertices of a closed
convex body is equal to 720 .
Proof. Let Fk be the number of faces having k edges. Thus, we have
F = F3 + F4 + F5 + : : : :
(clearly, only a nite number of the Fk s are nonzero). Also, counting edges by
faces, we obtain
2E = 3F3 + 4F4 + 5F5 + : : :
Since the sum of the interior angles on an n gon equals 180 (n 2) ; the
sum of all interior angles of all the faces (equivalently, the sum of plane angles
at all vertices) equals
S = 180 (3F3 + 4F4 + : : :

2 (F3 + F4 + : : :)) = 180 (2E

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

2F ) :
2

Therefore, the sum of all angular decits is

360 V

S = 360 V

180 (2E

2F ) = 360 (V

E + F ) = 720 ;

as desired
It is easy now to nish our problem. Since each vertex has a 12 angular
decit, we deduce that the number of vertices is 720=12 = 60: A pentagon is
incident at each vertex, but every pentagon is counted 5 times. Hence, the
number of pentagons is 60=5 = 12: Similarly, we have 120=6 = 20 hexagons.
Looking at a golf ball we may notice the large number of hexagonal dimples
and, every now and then, a pentagonal one (Figure 5). If we count up the latter,
we nd that there are once again 12 pentagonal faces. This is not by chance.

Figure 5
A second proof shows why this is happening. More precisely, we prove the
following statement.
Theorem 2. If every face of a polyhedron is a pentagon or a hexagon
and if the degree3 of every vertex is three, then the polyhedron has exactly 12
pentagonal faces.
Proof. Let P and H denote the number of pentagonal and hexagonal faces,
respectively. Then we have
F = P + H;
and, counting edges by faces,
2E = 5P + 6H:
Since every vertex has degree 3, counting edges by vertices yields
2E = 3V;
3 the

degree of a vertex is the number of edges incident to that vertex.

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

hence
V =

2
E:
3

Plugging this in Eulers relation gives

2
E
3

E + F = 2;

or
3F

E = 6;

and it follows that

6F

2E = 12:

But
6F

2E = 6 (P + H)

(5P + 6H) = P;

hence P = 12; as expected

Planar graphs
Let us begin by examining the following problem.
There are n 2 points on a circle. Each pair of them is connected by a chord
such that no three of them pass through the same point inside the circle. Find
the number of regions in which these chords divide the interior of the circle.

n=2 r=2

n=3 r=4

n=4 r=8

n=5 r=16

n=6 r=?

Figure 6
If one examines gure 6, chances are that they are tempted to answer r =
2n 1 ; since this holds for n = 2; 3; 4; and 5: However, if we count the regions for
the case n = 6; we might be surprised to observe that there are only 31 regions,
and not 32; as suggested by the previous results.
So, how many regions are there in the general case? To answer that, we
will need an equality, again named Eulers relation, concerning planar graphs
instead of polyhedra.
A graph G is a pair of sets (V; E) where V is a nonempty set whose elements
are called vertices, and E is a set of unordered pairs of elements of V; called
edges. Intuitively, we represent the vertices as points in plane and edges as line
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

segments or arcs joining some pairs among these points. In this article, we refer
only to nite simple graphs, that is, graphs in which the number of vertices is
nite and each edge joins at most one pair of distinct vertices.
The degree of a vertex v, denoted by d (v), is the number of edges incident
to it. A simple double counting argument justies the following result.
(Handshaking Lemma) In any graph
X
d (v) = 2 jEj ;
v2V

where jEj is the number of graphs edges.

A sequence of distinct vertices v1 ; v2 ; : : : ; vk in which vi and vi+1 are connected by an edge (these are called adjacent vertices) for all i; is called a path.
If v1 ; v2 ; : : : ; vk is a path and vk and v1 are also adjacent vertices, the sequence
is called a cycle of the graph.
A graph is connected if any two vertices are the endpoints of some path.
The same graph can be represented by dierent drawings in the plane. For
instance, the two drawings in gure 7 represent the same graph G (V; E) :

1
4

2
3

8
4

a)

b)

Figure 7
Here we have
V = f1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8g ;
and
E = ff1; 5g ; f1; 7g ; f2; 6g ; f2; 8g ; f3; 4g ; f3; 7g ; f4; 8g ; f5; 6gg :
A graph G is planar if there exists a drawing of G in the plane in which no
two edges intersect in a point other than a vertex of G. A planar graph divides
the plane into regions (bounded by edges) called faces, one of them being the
"innite" outer region.

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

f1
B
C

f3

f2

D
I

f4
G

Figure 8
The graph in gure 8 is a planar graph with 9 vertices, 11 edges, and 4 faces
(the face f1 is the outer region and it is bounded by edges AB; BC; CD; DE;
EF; F G; GI; IH; and HB; the face f2 is a triangular face and it is bounded by
edges BI; IH; and HB;etc.)
For a planar graph we can dene the degree of a face as the number of
encounters with edges in a walk round the boundary of that face. Examine
gure 9; we have three regions: f (the outer innite one), f 0 ; and f 00 :
f

f'

f'

f ''

f ''

d(f ')=4

d(f)=7

Figure 9
It is easy to see that d (f ) = 7 and d (f 0 ) = 4: The reader is asked to verify
that d (f 00 ) = 5: Observe that the graph in gure 9 has jEj = 8; and that
7 + 4 + 5 = 2 8:
If we denote by F the set of faces of a planar graph G; an equality very
similar to the handshaking lemma is easy to check.
Theorem 3. In any planar graph G
X
d (f ) = 2 jEj :
f 2F

Now, returning to convex polyhedra, observe that the vertices and edges of a
polyhedron can be viewed as a graph, called a polyhedral graph. An important
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

property of these graphs is that they are planar. Take any convex polyhedron;
we can obtain a connected planar graph by choosing a face as base, stretching the
base su ciently large and taking a top view projection onto the plane containing
the base (see gure 10 for a cube). The regions of these planar representations
directly correspond to the faces of the polyhedra. One of these regions is the
"innite" outer region of the graph.

Figure 10
Another way of obtaining a planar graph corresponding to a given convex
polyhedron is by using a perspective projection of the polyhedron onto a plane
with the center of perspective chosen near the center of one of the polyhedrons
faces (see gure 11)

Figure 11
An interesting question is whether any planar graph is a polyhedral one.
The answer is, of course, negative. One can easily see that a polyhedron graph
cannot have vertices with the degree less than 3.
Steinitzs theorem (1922) is a characterization of the planar graphs formed
by the edges and vertices of convex polyhedra: they are exactly the 3-connected4
planar graphs. That is, every convex polyhedron forms a 3-connected planar
4a

graph is k-connected if removing any k-1 vertices yields a connected graph.

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

graph, and every 3-connected planar graph can be represented as the graph of
a convex polyhedron.
The Eulers relation also holds for planar graphs. If G is a connected planar
graph with v vertices, e edges, and f faces, then
v

e + f = 2:

(Do not forget that one of the faces is the innite outer one). We present a
proof in the next paragraph.
Let us return to the problem we proposed at the beginning of this paragraph,
and let Rn be the wanted number of regions. If we remove the n arcs on the
circle (along with the n circular segment regions), we obtain a convex n-gon,
which, together with its diagonals and their intersection points, denes a simple
and connected planar graph (see gure 12). Let v; e; and f be the number of
vertices, edges, and faces of this graph. We have
Rn = f + n

1;

since we removed the n circular regions, but we have to discard in our counting
the outer region of the graph.
Eulers relation gives
v e + f = 2;
so we have to determine v and e in terms of n:
D
B

X
A
C

Figure 12
We have v = n + i; where i is the number of vertices in the interior of the
n-gon. It is not di cult to see that
i=

n
4

since every interior intersection point is determined by a set of 4 distinct vertices of the n-gon (point X in gure 12 is completely determined by the set
fA; B; C; Dg).
Now, let us count the edges. A number of n 1 edges are incident to each
of the original n points and 4 edges are incident to every interior point (since
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

no three diagonals pass through the same point). Every edge has been counted
twice, hence
1
e=
n (n 1) + 4 n4 :
2
We obtain
1
n + 2;
f = n (n 1) + n4
2
and then
1
n (n 1) + n4
n+2+n
2
1
= n (n 1) + n4 + 1
2
= 1 + n2 + n4 :

Rn =

For instance, R6 = 1 + 62 + 64 = 1 + 15 + 15 = 31:

A dierent (and brilliant) solution, which explains why we wrote the nal
result using binomial coe cients, can be found in [4] :
The answer to the question whether a given graph is planar or not was
obtained by the Polish mathematician Kazimierz Kuratowski in 1930.
Kuratowskis theorem states that a nite graph is planar if and only if it
does not contain a subgraph that is a subdivision5 of K5 (the complete graph
on ve vertices) or of K3;3 (complete bipartite graph on six vertices, three of
which connect to each of the other three)-see gure 13.

Figure 13

Proof of Eulers relation

A connected graph with no cycles is called a tree. We will need a result
about the number of edges of a tree.
Theorem 3. A tree with n
5a

2 vertices has n

1 edges.

subdivision of a graph G is a graph resulting from the subdivision of edges in G

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

Proof. We will induct on n: The base case being obvious, let us assume the
assertion true for all trees with at most n vertices and consider a tree with n + 1
vertices and e edges. We will prove that e = n.
We claim that there exists a vertex of degree one (actually, there are at least
two such vertices). Indeed, consider a path of maximal length, v1 ; v2 ; : : : ; vk 1 ; vk :
If deg (vk ) > 1; then vk is connected by an edge with some vertex v; distinct
from vk 1:
If v = vi ; with 1 i k 2; then the tree contains the cycle vi ; vi+1 ; : : : ; vk ; vi ;
which is a contradiction (Figure 14.2).
If v is distinct from v1 ; v2 ; : : : ; vk 1 ; then v1 ; v2 ; : : : ; vk 1 ; vk ; v is a path
longer than the initial one, contradicting thus its maximality (Figure 14.3).

v k-1

vk

v k-1

vi

v2

vk

v k-1

v2

v2

v1

vk

v1

v1

Figure 14.1

Figure 14.2

Figure 14.3

We deduce that a vertex of degree one exists. Delete that vertex and the
edge incident to it; the remaining graph is still connected and with no cycles,
hence it is a tree with n vertices and e 1 edges. By the induction hypothesis
it follows that e 1 = n 1; so e = n; as desired
Now we can prove Eulers relation for planar graphs.
Theorem 4. Let G be a connected planar graph with v vertices, e edges
and f faces. Then the following equality holds
v

e + f = 2:

Proof. We induct on e; the number of edges. If e = 0; then the graph

consists of only one vertex and has only one face (the outer region), hence we
must check that 1 + 1 = 2:
Assume that the result is true for all connected planar graphs with fewer
than e edges and suppose that G has e edges. We analyze two cases.
If G contains no cycles, then it is a tree. In this case, according to Theorem
3, e = v 1 and the equality we want to prove is
v

(v

1) + 1 = 2;

obviously true.
If G contains a cycle, removing an edge from that cycle will leave the graph
connected, with the same number of vertices, but with an edge and a face fewer
(since removing the edge from the cycle combines two faces into a single one,
see Figure 15).
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

10

v=10, e=12, f=4

v=10, e=11, f=3

Figure 15
The conclusion now follows from the induction hypothesis
Direct consequences
Theorem 5. In any connected planar graph with at least 3 vertices
e

3v

6:

Proof. If the graph has a face bounded by less than three edges, then it
consists of three vertices and two edges. The inequality is satised in this case.
Otherwise, each face is bounded by at least three edges. Counting edges by
faces yields 2e 3f: Hence
2=v

e+f

2
1
e + e = (3v
3
3

e) ;

and the conclusion follows

Corollary 5.1. K5 is not planar.
Suppose, by way of contradiction, that K5 were planar. Since K5 has 5
vertices and 52 = 10 edges, the inequality above becomes
10

3 5

6 = 9;

clearly not true.

Observation. If K5 were planar, from Eulers relation we nd that it should
have 7 faces. The degree of each face is at least 3 (there are no loops, nor vertices
connected by more than one edge) we obtain using theorem 3, that 2jEj 3 jF j :
that is, 20 21; a contradiction.
Corollary 5.2. In any connected planar graph at least one vertex has the
degree at most 5.
Indeed, if the degree of every vertex is at least 6, then, counting edges by
vertices, we obtain 2e 6v; that is,
e

3v;

contradicting thus theorem 5. Figure 8 below shows that this bound cannot be
improved. The graph in gure 16 (which is the planar graph of an icosahedron)
has all vertices of degree 5.
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

11

Figure 16

Figure 17

Theorem 6. In a connected planar graph with no triangular faces

e

2v

4:

Proof. The proof is similar to that of theorem 5. Since there are no triangular faces, each face is bounded by at least 4 edges, so, counting edges by faces
gives 2e 4f: Replacing in Eulers relation yields the result
Corollary 6. The graph K3;3 is not planar.
Suppose the contrary; since K3;3 is a bipartite graph, all its cycles have even
length, hence it has no triangular face. In this case, v = 6; e = 9; hence theorem
6 yields 9 8; a contradiction.
Observation. Another proof (again by contradiction) uses theorem 3 and
the fact that d (f ) 4; for any face f of the graph.
We leave to the reader the task of proving the following two results.
Theorem 7. In a connected planar graph in which the length of the shortest
cycle equals g 6 ; we have
g
(v 2) :
e
g 2
Corollary 7. Prove that the graph in Figure 17 (called the Petersens
graph) is not planar.
Problems
Problem 1. The sum of all the face angles about all of the vertices except
one of a given polyhedron is 5160 . Find the sum of all of the face angles of the
polyhedron.
U.S. proposal for the 24th International Mathematical Olympiad, 1983

Solution. Let S be the sum of all of the face angles of the polyhedron, and
let n be the number of vertices. From theorem 1 we have
n 360
6 usually

S = 720 ;

called the girth of the graph

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

12

hence
S = 360 (n

2) :

Let x be the sum of face angles about the excepted vertex. Then
x=S

5160 = 360 (n

2)

5160 :

Since obviously 0 < x < 360 ; we deduce that

16 +

1
1
< n < 17 + ;
3
3

hence n = 17 and, nally, S = 360

15 = 5400 :

Problem 2. Prove that a convex polyhedron all of whose faces are equilateral triangles has at most 30 edges.
Germany proposal for the 27th IMO
Solution. Using standard notations, we have 2e = 3f; and v e + f = 2;
hence
e = 3v 6:
The key observation is that the degree of each vertex is at most 5, since all
faces are equilateral triangles and the sum of face angles about any vertex is
less than 360 (remember the angular decit!), therefore
2e
We deduce that
e

5v:

2e
5

30:

6;

equivalent to
The equality holds in the case of an icosahedron.
Problem 3. We are given 6 points in the plane. Each point is joined by
an arc to four other points such that the arcs do not intersect. Prove that the
regions of the resulting map are all triangles.
Solution. Consider the planar graph dened by the drawing. Since the
degree of each vertex is 4 and there are 6 vertices, the graph is obviously connected (if two vertices are not adjacent, all four other vertices are adjacent to
both). The number of edges equals 12 6 4 = 12; hence Eulers relation yields
6

12 + f = 2;

that is, f = 8:
Now, observe that the degree of each face is at least 3 (that is because the
graph has no loops and there are no dierent edges joining the same pair of
vertices). Counting edges by faces we deduce that 2e
3f: But, in our case
2e = 3f = 24; hence we must have an equality in the previous inequality. This
happens only if the degree of each face is exactly 3. See gure 18 for a drawing
of such a graph.
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

13

n-1

Figure 18

Figure 19

Problem 4. In the plane are given n > 2 points joined by segments, such
that the interiors of any two segments are disjoint. Find the maximum possible
number of such segments as a function of n:
German Mathematical Olympiad, 1976

Solution. Consider the graph whose vertices are the n given points and
whose edges are the line segments. Being a planar graph, we have e 3n 6:
This maximal value can be obtained (see gure 19).
Observation. Actually, the problem asks for the maximal number of edges
in a planar graph with n vertices, since, as proven by Wagner (1936) and Fry
(1948), every planar graph has a planar straight line drawing with noncrossing
edges.
Problem 5. A convex quadrilateral is partitioned into n convex polygonal
regions. Find the maximal number of edges in the gure.
Solution. Let A1 A2 A3 A4 be the quadrilateral and consider the planar graph
obtained after the partition. Then d (Ak ) 2; for k = 1; 2; 3; 4; and d (A) 3
for any other vertex A of the graph, since the polygonal regions are convex. If
v is the number of vertices, we deduce that
2e

8 + 3 (v

4) :

The number of faces of the graph is n + 1 (dont forget about the outer face)
hence Eulers relation yields
v
so we have v = 1 + e

e + n = 1;

n: The inequality
2e

8 + 3 (1 + e

4)

readily simplies to
e

3n + 1;

and we claim that this maximal value can always be reached. We induct on n:
For n = 1; the quadrilateral itself is the convex polygon, with 3 1 + 1 = 4 edges.
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

14

A3
N

A4
M

A1

A2
b)

a)

Figure 20
Suppose that any convex quad can be partitioned into n convex polygonal
regions, with 3n + 1 edges. Let A1 A2 A3 A4 be a convex quad. Choose points M
and on two opposite sides (see gure 20a). Applying the induction hypothesis
to A1 A2 N M; we obtain a partition with n convex polygons having 3n + 1
edges. Adding M N A3 A4 yields a partition of the initial quadrilateral into n + 1
polygons, with 3n + 1 + 3 = 3 (n + 1) + 1 edges (moreover, from the proof we see
that one could ask all polygons in the partition to be quadrilaterals; see gure
20b for the case n = 7).
Problem 6. In some country, 11 towns are connected to each other by
either a direct motorway or a direct railway. Prove that there must be a bridge
such that a motorway passes across another motorway or a railway passes across
another railway.
Sankt Petersburg, 1998

Solution. The total number of connections is 11

= 55: By pigeonhole
2
principle we deduce that at least 28 of them are of the same kind. Suppose that
we have 28 railways. If no bridge is necessary, then the graph dened by the
railways is a planar one, with 29 edges and v 11 vertices. By theorem 5, we
have
28 3v 6 3 11 6 = 27;
a contradiction.
We invite the reader to try their hand in solving the following problems.
Problem 7. Consider a polyhedron with at least ve faces such that exactly
three edges emerge from each vertex. Two players play the following game: the
players sign their names alternately on precisely one face that has not been
previously signed. The winner is the player who succeeds in signing the name
on three faces that share a common vertex. Assuming optimal play, prove that
the player who starts the game always wins.
64th W.L. Putnam Mathematical Competition, 2003, proposed by T. Andreescu

Problem 8. A given convex polyhedron has no vertex which is incident

with exactly three edges. Prove that the polyhedron has at least eight triangular
faces.
Hungary-Israeli Mathematics Competition 1996
Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

15

Problem 9. A convex polyhedron has no quadrilateral or pentagonal faces.

Prove that at least four of its faces are triangles.
Problem 10. Let n be a positive integer. A convex polyhedron has 10n
faces. Prove that n of the faces have the same number of edges.
Problem 11. Some of the n faces of a polyhedron are colored in black such
that any two black-colored faces have no common vertex. The rest of the faces
of the polyhedron are colored in white.
Prove that the number of common sides of two white-colored faces of the
polyhedron is at least n 2.
Romanian IMO Selection Test, 2004

Problem 12. We consider a polyhedron which has exactly two vertices

adjacent with an odd number of edges, and these two vertices are lying on the
same edge.
Prove that for all integers n 3 there exists a face of the polyhedra with a
number of sides not divisible by n.
Romanian IMO Selection Test, 2005

References
[1] Dieter Kotschick, The Topology and Combinatorics of Soccer Balls, American Scientist, vol.94, 2006
[2] David S. Richeson, Eulers Gem, Princeton University Press, 2008
[3] N. Hartseld, G. Ringel, Pearls in Graph Theory, Academic Press, 1994
[4] Mark Noy, A Short Solution of a Problem in Combinatorial Geometry,
Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 69, No. 1, 1996, MAA
[5] R
azvan Gelca, Titu Andreescu, Putnam and Beyond, Springer, 2007
[6] Reinhard Diestel, Graph Theory, Springer-Verlag New York 1997, 2000
[7] Daniel A. Marcus, Graph Theory, A Problem Oriented Approach, The
Mathematical Association of America, 2008
[8] Ioan Tomescu, Problems in combinatorics and graph theory, John Wiley
& Sons, 1985
[9] Kin Y. Li, Eulers Planar Graph Formula, Mathematical Excalibur, Vol.16,
No.2

Mathematical Reflections 4 (2013)

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