The edges and vertices of a polyhedron constitute a special case of a graph, which is a set of N0 points or nodes, joined in pairs by N1 segments or branches. Hence, the essential property of a polyhedron is that its faces together form a single unbounded surface. The edges are merely curves drawn on the surface, which come together in sets of three or more at the vertices.  In other words, a polyhedron with N2 faces, N1 edges, and N0 vertices may be regarded as a map, i.e., as the partition of an unbounded surface into N2 polygonal regions by means of N1 simple curves joining pairs of N0 points.

From a given map, one may derive a second, called the dual map, on the same surface.  This second map has N2 vertices, one in the interior of each face of the given map; N1 edges, one crossing each edge of the given map; and N0 faces, one surrounding each vertex of the given map. Corresponding to a p-gonal face of the given map, the dual map will have a vertex where p edges (and p faces) come together.

Duality is a symmetric relation: a map is the dual of its dual.

Regular map: a map is said to be regular, of type , if there are p vertices and p edges for each face, q edges and q faces at each vertex, arranged symmetrically in a sense that can be made precise. Thus a regular polyhedron is a special case of a regular map. For each map of type , there is a dual map of type .

Consider the regular polyhedron , with its N0 vertices, N1 edges, N2 faces. If we replace each edge by a perpendicular line touching the mid-sphere at the same point, we obtain the N1 edges of the reciprocal polyhedron , which has N2 vertices and N0 faces. This process is, in fact, reciprocation with respect to the mid-sphere: the vertices and face-planes of  are the poles and polars of the face-planes and vertices of . Reciprocation with respect to another concentric sphere would yield a larger or smaller .

This process of reciprocation can evidently be applied to any figure which has a recognizable ``center''. It agrees with the topological duality that one defines for maps. The thirteen Archimedean solids hence are included in this case, i.e., for each Archimedean solid, there exists a reciprocal polyhedron.

For a given regular solid, its dual is also a regular solid. To access information of the dual of an Archimedean solid, use the following function calls: