Consider a
polyhedron that is
topologically equivalent to a
sphere, such as any
convex polyhedron. Any vertex of the polyhedron will have several
facets that meet at that vertex. Each of these facets will have an interior angle at that vertex and the sum of the interior angles at a vertex can be said to be the interior angle associated with that vertex of the polyhedron. The value of radians (or 360 degrees) minus that interior angle can be said to be the exterior angle associated with that vertex, also known by other names such as
angular defect. The sum of these exterior angles across all vertices of the polyhedron will necessarily be radians (or 720 degrees), and the sum of the interior angles will necessarily be radians (or degrees) where is the number of vertices. A proof of this can be obtained by using the formulas for the sum of interior angles of each facet together with the fact that the
Euler characteristic of a sphere is 2. For example, a
rectangular solid will have three rectangular facets meeting at any vertex, with each of these facets having a 90° internal angle at that vertex, so each vertex of the rectangular solid is associated with an interior angle of and an exterior angle of . The sum of these exterior angles over all eight vertices is . The sum of these interior angles over all eight vertices is . ==References==