Vertex (geometry)

In geometry, a vertex (plural: vertices or vertexes) is a point where two or more curves, lines, or edges meet. As a consequence of this definition, the point where two lines meet to form an angle and the corners of polygons and polyhedra are vertices.

The vertex of an angle is the point where two rays begin or meet, where two line segments join or meet, where two lines intersect (cross), or any appropriate combination of rays, segments and lines that result in two straight "sides" meeting at one place.

A vertex is a corner point of a polygon, polyhedron, or other higher-dimensional polytope, formed by the intersection of edges, faces or facets of the object.

In a polygon, a vertex is called "convex" if the internal angle of the polygon, that is, the angle formed by the two edges at the vertex, with the polygon inside the angle, is less than π radians ( 180°, two right angles) ; otherwise, it is called "concave" or "reflex". More generally, a vertex of a polyhedron or polytope is convex if the intersection of the polyhedron or polytope with a sufficiently small sphere centered at the vertex is convex, and concave otherwise.

Polytope vertices are related to vertices of graphs, in that the 1-skeleton of a polytope is a graph, the vertices of which correspond to the vertices of the polytope, and in that a graph can be viewed as a 1-dimensional simplicial complex the vertices of which are the graph's vertices. However, in graph theory, vertices may have fewer than two incident edges, which is usually not allowed for geometric vertices. There is also a connection between geometric vertices and the vertices of a curve, its points of extreme curvature: in some sense the vertices of a polygon are points of infinite curvature, and if a polygon is approximated by a smooth curve there will be a point of extreme curvature near each polygon vertex. However, a smooth curve approximation to a polygon will also have additional vertices, at the points where its curvature is minimal.

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