On Plato's ``Fairest triangles'' (Timaeus 54a) (Q1309148)

In this Timaeus, Plato constructs the polyhedra in a curious way. He composes the square face of the cube from four isosceles right triangles and the equilateral triangular face of the tetrahedron, etc., from six triangles with sides, \(a,a \sqrt 3\) and \(2a\). This procedure, as far as the authors can see, found no satisfactory explanation by the commentators of the Timaeus. The authors propose to understand it as constructions for the duplication of the square and the triplication of the equilateral triangle. The same constructions provide us with what Plato calls the fairest bonds between segments \(a\) and \(2a\) for the square and \(a\) and \(3a\) for the triangle. This explains Plato's description of the original right triangles as the fairest ones.