Euler characteristic, in mathematics, a number, C, that is a topological characteristic of various classes of geometric figures based only on a relationship between the numbers of vertices (V), edges (E), and faces (F) of a geometric figure. This number, given by C = V − E + F, is the same for all figures whose boundaries are composed of the same number of connected pieces (i.e., the boundary of a circle or figure eight is of one piece; that of a washer, two).
For all simple polygons (i.e., without holes), the Euler characteristic equals one. This can be demonstrated for a general figure by the process of triangulation, in which auxiliary lines are drawn connecting vertices so that the region is subdivided into triangles (see , top). The triangles are then removed one at a time from the outside inward until only one remains, whose Euler characteristic can be easily calculated to equal one. It can be observed that this process of adding and removing lines does not alter the Euler characteristic of the original figure, and so it must also equal one.
For any simple polyhedron (in three dimensions), the Euler characteristic is two, as can be seen by removing one face and “stretching” the remaining figure out onto a plane, resulting in a polygon with a Euler characteristic of one (see , bottom). Adding the missing face gives a Euler characteristic of two.
For figures with holes, the Euler characteristic will be less by the number of holes present (see , right), because each hole can be thought of as a “missing” face.
In algebraic topology there is a more general formula called the Euler-Poincaré formula, which has terms corresponding to the number of components in each dimension and also terms (called Betti numbers) derived from the homology groups that depend only on the topology of the figure.
The Euler characteristic, named for the 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, can be used to show that there are only five regular polyhedra, the so-called Platonic solids.