Energies of non-planar conjugated π systems are typically described qualitatively in terms of the balance of π stabilisation and the steric strain associated with geometric curvature. Curvature also has a purely graph-theoretical description: combinatorial curvature at a vertex of a polyhedral graph is defined as one minus half the vertex degree plus the sum of reciprocal sizes of the faces meeting at that vertex. Prisms and antiprisms have positive combinatorial vertex curvature at every vertex.
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