Alternation (geometry)

Last updated
Polyhedron 4a.png
Polyhedron 4-4 dual blue.png
Polyhedron 4b.png
Alternation of a cube creates a tetrahedron.
Polyhedron great rhombi 6-8 subsolid snub left maxmatch.png
Polyhedron great rhombi 6-8 max.png
Polyhedron great rhombi 6-8 subsolid snub right maxmatch.png
Alternation of a truncated cuboctahedron creates a nonuniform snub cube.

In geometry, an alternation or partial truncation, is an operation on a polygon, polyhedron, tiling, or higher dimensional polytope that removes alternate vertices. [1]

Contents

Coxeter labels an alternation by a prefixed h, standing for hemi or half. Because alternation reduces all polygon faces to half as many sides, it can only be applied to polytopes with all even-sided faces. An alternated square face becomes a digon, and being degenerate, is usually reduced to a single edge.

More generally any vertex-uniform polyhedron or tiling with a vertex configuration consisting of all even-numbered elements can be alternated. For example, the alternation of a vertex figure with 2a.2b.2c is a.3.b.3.c.3 where the three is the number of elements in this vertex figure. A special case is square faces whose order divides in half into degenerate digons. So for example, the cube 4.4.4 is alternated as 2.3.2.3.2.3 which is reduced to 3.3.3, being the tetrahedron, and all the 6 edges of the tetrahedra can also be seen as the degenerate faces of the original cube.

Snub

A snub (in Coxeter's terminology) can be seen as an alternation of a truncated regular or truncated quasiregular polyhedron. In general a polyhedron can be snubbed if its truncation has only even-sided faces. All truncated rectified polyhedra can be snubbed, not just from regular polyhedra.

The snub square antiprism is an example of a general snub, and can be represented by ss{2,4}, with the square antiprism, s{2,4}.

Alternated polytopes

This alternation operation applies to higher-dimensional polytopes and honeycombs as well, but in general most of the results of this operation will not be uniform. The voids created by the deleted vertices will not in general create uniform facets, and there are typically not enough degrees of freedom to allow an appropriate rescaling of the new edges. Exceptions do exist, however, such as the derivation of the snub 24-cell from the truncated 24-cell.

Examples:

Altered polyhedra

Coxeter also used the operator a, which contains both halves, so retains the original symmetry. For even-sided regular polyhedra, a{2p,q} represents a compound polyhedron with two opposite copies of h{2p,q}. For odd-sided, greater than 3, regular polyhedra a{p,q}, becomes a star polyhedron.

Norman Johnson extended the use of the altered operator a{p,q}, b{p,q} for blended, and c{p,q} for converted, as CDel node h3.pngCDel p.pngCDel node.pngCDel q.pngCDel node.png, CDel node.pngCDel p.pngCDel node h3.pngCDel q.pngCDel node.png, and CDel node.pngCDel p.pngCDel node.pngCDel q.pngCDel node h3.png respectively.

The compound polyhedron known as the stellated octahedron can be represented by a{4,3} (an altered cube), and CDel node h3.pngCDel 4.pngCDel node.pngCDel 3.pngCDel node.png, Compound of two tetrahedra.png .

The star polyhedron known as the small ditrigonal icosidodecahedron can be represented by a{5,3} (an altered dodecahedron), and CDel node h3.pngCDel 5.pngCDel node.pngCDel 3.pngCDel node.png, Small ditrigonal icosidodecahedron.png . Here all the pentagons have been alternated into pentagrams, and triangles have been inserted to take up the resulting free edges.

The star polyhedron known as the great ditrigonal icosidodecahedron can be represented by a{5/2,3} (an altered great stellated dodecahedron), and CDel node h3.pngCDel 5-2.pngCDel node.pngCDel 3.pngCDel node.png, Great ditrigonal icosidodecahedron.png . Here all the pentagrams have been alternated back into pentagons, and triangles have been inserted to take up the resulting free edges.

Alternate truncations

A similar operation can truncate alternate vertices, rather than just removing them. Below is a set of polyhedra that can be generated from the Catalan solids. These have two types of vertices which can be alternately truncated. Truncating the "higher order" vertices and both vertex types produce these forms:

NameOriginalAlternated
truncation
TruncationTruncated name
Cube
Dual of rectified tetrahedron
Hexahedron.svg Alternate truncated cube.png Uniform polyhedron-43-t01.svg Alternate truncated cube
Rhombic dodecahedron
Dual of cuboctahedron
Rhombicdodecahedron.jpg Truncated rhombic dodecahedron2.png StellaTruncRhombicDodeca.png Truncated rhombic dodecahedron
Rhombic triacontahedron
Dual of icosidodecahedron
Rhombictriacontahedron.svg Truncated rhombic triacontahedron.png StellaTruncRhombicTriaconta.png Truncated rhombic triacontahedron
Triakis tetrahedron
Dual of truncated tetrahedron
Triakistetrahedron.jpg Truncated triakis tetrahedron.png StellaTruncTriakisTetra.png Truncated triakis tetrahedron
Triakis octahedron
Dual of truncated cube
Triakisoctahedron.jpg Truncated triakis octahedron.png StellaTruncTriakisOcta.png Truncated triakis octahedron
Triakis icosahedron
Dual of truncated dodecahedron
Triakisicosahedron.jpg Truncated triakis icosahedron.png Truncated triakis icosahedron

See also

Related Research Articles

In geometry, a polyhedral compound is a figure that is composed of several polyhedra sharing a common centre. They are the three-dimensional analogs of polygonal compounds such as the hexagram.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truncated icosidodecahedron</span> Archimedean solid

In geometry, a truncated icosidodecahedron, rhombitruncated icosidodecahedron, great rhombicosidodecahedron, omnitruncated dodecahedron or omnitruncated icosahedron is an Archimedean solid, one of thirteen convex, isogonal, non-prismatic solids constructed by two or more types of regular polygon faces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schläfli symbol</span> Notation that defines regular polytopes and tessellations

In geometry, the Schläfli symbol is a notation of the form that defines regular polytopes and tessellations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vertex figure</span> Shape made by slicing off a corner of a polytope

In geometry, a vertex figure, broadly speaking, is the figure exposed when a corner of a polyhedron or polytope is sliced off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform 4-polytope</span> Class of 4-dimensional polytopes

In geometry, a uniform 4-polytope is a 4-dimensional polytope which is vertex-transitive and whose cells are uniform polyhedra, and faces are regular polygons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rectification (geometry)</span> Operation in Euclidean geometry

In Euclidean geometry, rectification, also known as critical truncation or complete-truncation, is the process of truncating a polytope by marking the midpoints of all its edges, and cutting off its vertices at those points. The resulting polytope will be bounded by vertex figure facets and the rectified facets of the original polytope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform polyhedron</span> Isogonal polyhedron with regular faces

In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive. It follows that all vertices are congruent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cubic honeycomb</span> Only regular space-filling tessellation of the cube

The cubic honeycomb or cubic cellulation is the only proper regular space-filling tessellation in Euclidean 3-space made up of cubic cells. It has 4 cubes around every edge, and 8 cubes around each vertex. Its vertex figure is a regular octahedron. It is a self-dual tessellation with Schläfli symbol {4,3,4}. John Horton Conway called this honeycomb a cubille.

In geometry, a snub polyhedron is a polyhedron obtained by performing a snub operation: alternating a corresponding omnitruncated or truncated polyhedron, depending on the definition. Some, but not all, authors include antiprisms as snub polyhedra, as they are obtained by this construction from a degenerate "polyhedron" with only two faces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order-5 cubic honeycomb</span> Regular tiling of hyperbolic 3-space

In hyperbolic geometry, the order-5 cubic honeycomb is one of four compact regular space-filling tessellations in hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol {4,3,5}, it has five cubes {4,3} around each edge, and 20 cubes around each vertex. It is dual with the order-4 dodecahedral honeycomb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Icosahedral honeycomb</span> Regular tiling of hyperbolic 3-space

In geometry, the icosahedral honeycomb is one of four compact, regular, space-filling tessellations in hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol {3,5,3}, there are three icosahedra around each edge, and 12 icosahedra around each vertex, in a regular dodecahedral vertex figure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truncation (geometry)</span> Operation that cuts polytope vertices, creating a new facet in place of each vertex

In geometry, a truncation is an operation in any dimension that cuts polytope vertices, creating a new facet in place of each vertex. The term originates from Kepler's names for the Archimedean solids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform polytope</span> Isogonal polytope with uniform facets

In geometry, a uniform polytope of dimension three or higher is a vertex-transitive polytope bounded by uniform facets. The uniform polytopes in two dimensions are the regular polygons.

In geometry, a quasiregular polyhedron is a uniform polyhedron that has exactly two kinds of regular faces, which alternate around each vertex. They are vertex-transitive and edge-transitive, hence a step closer to regular polyhedra than the semiregular, which are merely vertex-transitive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snub (geometry)</span> Geometric operation applied to a polyhedron

In geometry, a snub is an operation applied to a polyhedron. The term originates from Kepler's names of two Archimedean solids, for the snub cube and snub dodecahedron. In general, snubs have chiral symmetry with two forms: with clockwise or counterclockwise orientation. By Kepler's names, a snub can be seen as an expansion of a regular polyhedron: moving the faces apart, twisting them about their centers, adding new polygons centered on the original vertices, and adding pairs of triangles fitting between the original edges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform honeycombs in hyperbolic space</span> Tiling of hyperbolic 3-space by uniform polyhedra

In hyperbolic geometry, a uniform honeycomb in hyperbolic space is a uniform tessellation of uniform polyhedral cells. In 3-dimensional hyperbolic space there are nine Coxeter group families of compact convex uniform honeycombs, generated as Wythoff constructions, and represented by permutations of rings of the Coxeter diagrams for each family.

References

  1. Coxeter, Regular polytopes, pp. 154–156 8.6 Partial truncation, or alternation
Polyhedron operators
Seed Truncation Rectification Bitruncation Dual Expansion Omnitruncation Alternations
CDel node 1.pngCDel p.pngCDel node n1.pngCDel q.pngCDel node n2.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel p.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel q.pngCDel node.pngCDel node.pngCDel p.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel q.pngCDel node.pngCDel node.pngCDel p.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel q.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel node.pngCDel p.pngCDel node.pngCDel q.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel p.pngCDel node.pngCDel q.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel p.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel q.pngCDel node 1.pngCDel node h.pngCDel p.pngCDel node.pngCDel q.pngCDel node.pngCDel node.pngCDel p.pngCDel node h.pngCDel q.pngCDel node h.pngCDel node h.pngCDel p.pngCDel node h.pngCDel q.pngCDel node h.png
Uniform polyhedron-43-t0.svg Uniform polyhedron-43-t01.svg Uniform polyhedron-43-t1.svg Uniform polyhedron-43-t12.svg Uniform polyhedron-43-t2.svg Uniform polyhedron-43-t02.png Uniform polyhedron-43-t012.png Uniform polyhedron-33-t0.png Uniform polyhedron-43-h01.svg Uniform polyhedron-43-s012.png
t0{p,q}
{p,q}
t01{p,q}
t{p,q}
t1{p,q}
r{p,q}
t12{p,q}
2t{p,q}
t2{p,q}
2r{p,q}
t02{p,q}
rr{p,q}
t012{p,q}
tr{p,q}
ht0{p,q}
h{q,p}
ht12{p,q}
s{q,p}
ht012{p,q}
sr{p,q}