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jmc

geometry senior

Problem

A convex polyhedron has vertices, edges, and faces, of which are triangular and of which are quadrilaterals. A space diagonal is a line segment connecting two non-adjacent vertices that do not belong to the same face. How many space diagonals does have?
Solution
Every pair of vertices of the polyhedron determines either an edge, a face diagonal or a space diagonal. We have total line segments determined by the vertices. Of these, are edges. Each triangular face has face diagonals and each quadrilateral face has , so there are face diagonals. This leaves segments to be the space diagonals.
Final answer
241