Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
Let P be a d-dimensional convex polytope (briefly, a d-polytope) in d-dimensional euclidean space Ed. Associated with P is a vector f(P), known as the f-vector of P, defined by
where fj(P) is the number of j-faces of P for 0 ≤ j ≤ d − 1 and the superscript T denotes transposition. (We regard f(P) as a column vector, and identify it with the vector
where (e1, …, ed) is some fixed basis of Ed.) Let d be the set of all d-polytopes in Ed, and d be any subset of d. Using tghe notation of [1; §8.1], we donate by f(d) the set of vectors {f(P): P ε d}, and write aff f(d) for the (unique) affine subspace of lowest dimension in Ed which contains all the vectors of f(d). Then it is well-known that
the equation of the hyperplane aff f(d) being that given by the Euler relation between the numbers fj(P) [1; Theorem 8.1.1].