The 5-cell is a solution to the problem: No solution exists in three dimensions.

Make 10 equilateral triangles, all of the same size, using 10 matchsticks, where each side of every triangle is exactly one matchstick.

The convex hull of the 5-cell and its dual (assuming that they are congruent) is the disphenoidal 30-cell, dual of the bitruncated 5-cell.

The 5-cell is self-dual, and its vertex figure is a tetrahedron. Its maximal intersection with 3-dimensional space is the triangular prism. Its dihedral angle is cos−1(1/4), or approximately 75.52°.

This configuration matrix represents the 5-cell. The rows and columns correspond to vertices, edges, faces, and cells. The diagonal numbers say how many of each element occur in the whole 5-cell. The nondiagonal numbers say how many of the column's element occur in or at the row's element. This self-dual polytope's matrix is identical to its 180 degree rotation.[5]

The 5-cell can be constructed from a tetrahedron by adding a 5th vertex such that it is equidistant from all the other vertices of the tetrahedron. (The 5-cell is a 4-dimensional pyramid with a tetrahedral base and four tetrahedral sides.)

The simplest set of coordinates is: (2,0,0,0), (0,2,0,0), (0,0,2,0), (0,0,0,2), (φ,φ,φ,φ), with edge length 22, where φ is the golden ratio.[6]

The Cartesian coordinates of the vertices of an origin-centered regular 5-cell having edge length 2 and radius 1.6 are:

Another set of origin-centered coordinates in 4-space can be seen as a hyperpyramid with a regular tetrahedral base in 3-space, with edge length 22 and radius 3.2:

The vertices of a 4-simplex (with edge 2 and radius 1) can be more simply constructed on a hyperplane in 5-space, as (distinct) permutations of (0,0,0,0,1) or (0,1,1,1,1); in these positions it is a facet of, respectively, the 5-orthoplex or the rectified penteract.

A 5-cell can be constructed as a Boerdijk–Coxeter helix of five chained tetrahedra, folded into a 4-dimensional ring. The 10 triangle faces can be seen in a 2D net within a triangular tiling, with 6 triangles around every vertex, although folding into 4-dimensions causes edges to coincide. The purple edges represent the Petrie polygon of the 5-cell.

The A4 Coxeter plane projects the 5-cell into a regular pentagon and pentagram.

There are many lower symmetry forms, including these found in uniform polytope vertex figures:

The tetrahedral pyramid is a special case of a 5-cell, a polyhedral pyramid, constructed as a regular tetrahedron base in a 3-space hyperplane, and an apex point above the hyperplane. The four sides of the pyramid are made of tetrahedron cells.

Other uniform 5-polytopes have irregular 5-cell vertex figures. The symmetry of a vertex figure of a uniform polytope is represented by removing the ringed nodes of the Coxeter diagram.

The compound of two 5-cells in dual configurations can be seen in this A5 Coxeter plane projection, with a red and blue 5-cell vertices and edges. This compound has [[3,3,3]] symmetry, order 240. The intersection of these two 5-cells is a uniform bitruncated 5-cell. CDel branch 11.pngCDel 3ab.pngCDel nodes.png = CDel branch.pngCDel 3ab.pngCDel nodes 10l.pngCDel branch.pngCDel 3ab.pngCDel nodes 01l.png.

The pentachoron (5-cell) is the simplest of 9 uniform polychora constructed from the [3,3,3] Coxeter group.