On mappings preserving pentagons

Summary We introduce a new characterization of linear isometries. More precisely, we prove that if a one-to-one mapping f:<span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode"'>ℝⁿ→ℝⁿ(2<span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode"'>≦n<<span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode"'>∞) maps every regular pentagon of side length a> 0 onto a pentagon with side length b> 0, then there exists a linear isometry I :<span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode"'>ℝⁿ→ℝⁿup to translation such that f(x) = (b/a) I(x).