Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2008 / ib / Paper 2 / 12G (Geometry)

Work on the unit sphere with geodesic edges. A spherical lune of angle $\alpha$ has area ${\int }_0^{\alpha }{\int }_0^{\pi }\sin \theta d\theta d\phi =2\alpha$. The three great circles through the sides of a spherical triangle partition the sphere into four antipodal pairs of triangles. If the original triangle has area $A$ and the other pair representatives have areas $B,C,D$, then $A+B+C+D=2\pi$. The three lunes at its vertices have areas $A+B,A+C,A+D$, soThis proves the spherical excess formula $\boxed{A=\alpha +\beta +\gamma -\pi }$. Triangulate a convex spherical $k$-gon from one vertex into $k-2$ triangles; summing areas and vertex angles givesFor a decomposition of the whole sphere, angles around every vertex sum to $2\pi$ and each edge belongs to two faces. Summing the polygon area formula over all faces therefore givesNow $F=m+n+p$, $2E=4m+5n+6p$, and $3V=2E$, since three edges meet at each vertex. Substituting into Euler's formula yields $2m+n=12$. Nonnegative integer solutions therefore give at most seven pairs:At least three distinct pairs are realized: a dodecahedron gives $(0,12)$, a pentagonal prism gives $(5,2)$, and a cube gives $(6,0)$. Center each convex polyhedron around an interior origin and radially project its faces onto the sphere; edges become great-circle arcs and the resulting spherical faces are convex, preserving the incidence counts. This supplies the required actual decompositions.