The edge length of a great icosahedron is 7 + 3 5 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {7+3{\sqrt {5}}}{2}}} times that of the original icosahedron.
For a great icosahedron with edge length E (the edge of its dodecahedron core),
Inradius = E ( 3 3 − 15 ) 4 {\displaystyle {\text{Inradius}}={\frac {{\text{E}}(3{\sqrt {3}}-{\sqrt {15}})}{4}}}
Midradius = E ( 5 − 1 ) 4 {\displaystyle {\text{Midradius}}={\frac {{\text{E}}({\sqrt {5}}-1)}{4}}}
Circumradius = E 2 ( 5 − 5 ) 4 {\displaystyle {\text{Circumradius}}={\frac {{\text{E}}{\sqrt {2(5-{\sqrt {5}})}}}{4}}}
Surface Area = 3 3 ( 5 + 4 5 ) E 2 {\displaystyle {\text{Surface Area}}=3{\sqrt {3}}(5+4{\sqrt {5}}){\text{E}}^{2}}
Volume = 25 + 9 5 4 E 3 {\displaystyle {\text{Volume}}={\tfrac {25+9{\sqrt {5}}}{4}}{\text{E}}^{3}}
The great icosahedron can be constructed as a uniform snub, with different colored faces and only tetrahedral symmetry: . This construction can be called a retrosnub tetrahedron or retrosnub tetratetrahedron,1 similar to the snub tetrahedron symmetry of the icosahedron, as a partial faceting of the truncated octahedron (or omnitruncated tetrahedron): . It can also be constructed with 2 colors of triangles and pyritohedral symmetry as, or , and is called a retrosnub octahedron.
It shares the same vertex arrangement as the regular convex icosahedron. It also shares the same edge arrangement as the small stellated dodecahedron.
A truncation operation, repeatedly applied to the great icosahedron, produces a sequence of uniform polyhedra. Truncating edges down to points produces the great icosidodecahedron as a rectified great icosahedron. The process completes as a birectification, reducing the original faces down to points, and producing the great stellated dodecahedron.
The truncated great stellated dodecahedron is a degenerate polyhedron, with 20 triangular faces from the truncated vertices, and 12 (hidden) doubled up pentagonal faces ({10/2}) as truncations of the original pentagram faces, the latter forming two great dodecahedra inscribed within and sharing the edges of the icosahedron.
Klitzing, Richard. "uniform polyhedra Great icosahedron". https://bendwavy.org/klitzing/dimensions/../incmats/gike.htm ↩