Expansion (geometry)

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An example of expanding pentagon into a decagon by moving edges away from the center and inserting new edges in the gaps. The expansion is uniform if all the edges are the same length. Expanding pentagon.png
An example of expanding pentagon into a decagon by moving edges away from the center and inserting new edges in the gaps. The expansion is uniform if all the edges are the same length.
Animation showing an expanded cube (and octahedron) P2-A5-P3.gif
Animation showing an expanded cube (and octahedron)

In geometry, expansion is a polytope operation where facets are separated and moved radially apart, and new facets are formed at separated elements (vertices, edges, etc.). Equivalently this operation can be imagined by keeping facets in the same position but reducing their size.

Contents

The expansion of a regular convex polytope creates a uniform convex polytope.

For polyhedra, an expanded polyhedron has all the faces of the original polyhedron, all the faces of the dual polyhedron, and new square faces in place of the original edges.

Expansion of regular polytopes

According to Coxeter, this multidimensional term was defined by Alicia Boole Stott [1] for creating new polytopes, specifically starting from regular polytopes to construct new uniform polytopes.

The expansion operation is symmetric with respect to a regular polytope and its dual. The resulting figure contains the facets of both the regular and its dual, along with various prismatic facets filling the gaps created between intermediate dimensional elements.

It has somewhat different meanings by dimension. In a Wythoff construction, an expansion is generated by reflections from the first and last mirrors. In higher dimensions, lower dimensional expansions can be written with a subscript, so e2 is the same as t0,2 in any dimension.

By dimension:

The general operator for expansion of a regular n-polytope is t0,n-1{p,q,r,...}. New regular facets are added at each vertex, and new prismatic polytopes are added at each divided edge, face, ... ridge, etc.

See also

Notes

  1. Coxeter, Regular Polytopes (1973), p. 123. p.210

Related Research Articles

In geometry, an octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces. One special case is the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex. Regular octahedra occur in nature as crystal structures. Many types of irregular octahedra also exist, including both convex and non-convex shapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyhedron</span> Three-dimensional shape with flat faces, straight edges, and sharp corners

In geometry, a polyhedron is a three-dimensional figure with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.

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">4-polytope</span> Four-dimensional geometric object with flat sides

In geometry, a 4-polytope is a four-dimensional polytope. It is a connected and closed figure, composed of lower-dimensional polytopal elements: vertices, edges, faces (polygons), and cells (polyhedra). Each face is shared by exactly two cells. The 4-polytopes were discovered by the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli before 1853.

<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">Regular polytope</span> Polytope with highest degree of symmetry

In mathematics, a regular polytope is a polytope whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags, thus giving it the highest degree of symmetry. In particular, all its elements or j-faces — cells, faces and so on — are also transitive on the symmetries of the polytope, and are themselves regular polytopes of dimension jn.

<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 general n-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—there is an isometry mapping any vertex onto any other. It follows that all vertices are congruent. Uniform polyhedra may be regular, quasi-regular, or semi-regular. The faces and vertices don't need to be convex, so many of the uniform polyhedra are also star polyhedra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexagonal prism</span> Prism with a 6-sided base

In geometry, the hexagonal prism is a prism with hexagonal base. Prisms are polyhedrons; this polyhedron has 8 faces, 18 edges, and 12 vertices.

<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">Alternation (geometry)</span> Removal of alternate vertices

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cantellation (geometry)</span> Geometric operation on a regular polytope

In geometry, a cantellation is a 2nd-order truncation in any dimension that bevels a regular polytope at its edges and at its vertices, creating a new facet in place of each edge and of each vertex. Cantellation also applies to regular tilings and honeycombs. Cantellating a polyhedron is also rectifying its rectification.

<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. Here, "vertex-transitive" means that it has symmetries taking every vertex to every other vertex; the same must also be true within each lower-dimensional face of the polytope. In two dimensions a stronger definition is used: only the regular polygons are considered as uniform, disallowing polygons that alternate between two different lengths of edges.

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 geometry, a hemipolyhedron is a uniform star polyhedron some of whose faces pass through its center. These "hemi" faces lie parallel to the faces of some other symmetrical polyhedron, and their count is half the number of faces of that other polyhedron – hence the "hemi" prefix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">6-polytope</span>

In six-dimensional geometry, a six-dimensional polytope or 6-polytope is a polytope, bounded by 5-polytope facets.

References

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}