This article may be too technical for most readers to understand.(January 2023) |
A geodesic polyhedron is a convex polyhedron made from triangles. They usually have icosahedral symmetry, such that they have 6 triangles at a vertex, except 12 vertices which have 5 triangles. They are the dual of corresponding Goldberg polyhedra, of which all but the smallest one (which is a regular dodecahedron) have mostly hexagonal faces.
Geodesic polyhedra are a good approximation to a sphere for many purposes, and appear in many different contexts. The most well-known may be the geodesic domes , hemispherical architectural structures designed by Buckminster Fuller, which geodesic polyhedra are named after. Geodesic grids used in geodesy also have the geometry of geodesic polyhedra. The capsids of some viruses have the shape of geodesic polyhedra, [1] [2] and some pollen grains are based on geodesic polyhedra. [3] Fullerene molecules have the shape of Goldberg polyhedra. Geodesic polyhedra are available as geometric primitives in the Blender 3D modeling software package, which calls them icospheres: they are an alternative to the UV sphere, having a more regular distribution. [4] [5] The Goldberg–Coxeter construction is an expansion of the concepts underlying geodesic polyhedra.
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In Magnus Wenninger's Spherical models, polyhedra are given geodesic notation in the form {3,q+}b,c, where {3,q} is the Schläfli symbol for the regular polyhedron with triangular faces, and q-valence vertices. The + symbol indicates the valence of the vertices being increased. b,c represent a subdivision description, with 1,0 representing the base form. There are 3 symmetry classes of forms: {3,3+}1,0 for a tetrahedron, {3,4+}1,0 for an octahedron, and {3,5+}1,0 for an icosahedron.
The dual notation for Goldberg polyhedra is {q+,3}b,c, with valence-3 vertices, with q-gonal and hexagonal faces. There are 3 symmetry classes of forms: {3+,3}1,0 for a tetrahedron, {4+,3}1,0 for a cube, and {5+,3}1,0 for a dodecahedron.
Values for b,c are divided into three classes:
Subdivisions in class III here do not line up simply with the original edges. The subgrids can be extracted by looking at a triangular tiling, positioning a large triangle on top of grid vertices and walking paths from one vertex b steps in one direction, and a turn, either clockwise or counterclockwise, and then another c steps to the next primary vertex.
For example, the icosahedron is {3,5+}1,0, and pentakis dodecahedron, {3,5+}1,1 is seen as a regular dodecahedron with pentagonal faces divided into 5 triangles.
The primary face of the subdivision is called a principal polyhedral triangle (PPT) or the breakdown structure. Calculating a single PPT allows the entire figure to be created.
The frequency of a geodesic polyhedron is defined by the sum of ν = b + c. A harmonic is a subfrequency and can be any whole divisor of ν. Class II always have a harmonic of 2, since ν = 2b.
The triangulation number is T = b2 + bc + c2. This number times the number of original faces expresses how many triangles the new polyhedron will have.
The number of elements are specified by the triangulation number . Two different geodesic polyhedra may have the same number of elements, for instance, {3,5+}5,3 and {3,5+}7,0 both have T=49.
Symmetry | Icosahedral | Octahedral | Tetrahedral |
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Base | Icosahedron {3,5} = {3,5+}1,0 | Octahedron {3,4} = {3,4+}1,0 | Tetrahedron {3,3} = {3,3+}1,0 |
Image | |||
Symbol | {3,5+}b,c | {3,4+}b,c | {3,3+}b,c |
Vertices | |||
Faces | |||
Edges |
Geodesic polyhedra are constructed by subdividing faces of simpler polyhedra, and then projecting the new vertices onto the surface of a sphere. A geodesic polyhedron has straight edges and flat faces that approximate a sphere, but it can also be made as a spherical polyhedron (a tessellation on a sphere) with true geodesic curved edges on the surface of a sphere and spherical triangle faces.
Conway | u3I = (kt)I | (k)tI | ktI | |
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Image | ||||
Form | 3-frequency subdivided icosahedron | Kis truncated icosahedron | Geodesic polyhedron (3,0) | Spherical polyhedron |
In this case, {3,5+}3,0, with frequency and triangulation number , each of the four versions of the polygon has 92 vertices (80 where six edges join, and 12 where five join), 270 edges and 180 faces.
Geodesic polyhedra are the duals of Goldberg polyhedra. Goldberg polyhedra are also related in that applying a kis operator (dividing faces into triangles with a center point) creates new geodesic polyhedra, and truncating vertices of a geodesic polyhedron creates a new Goldberg polyhedron. For example, Goldberg G(2,1) kised, becomes {3,5+}4,1, and truncating that becomes G(6,3). And similarly {3,5+}2,1 truncated becomes G(4,1), and that kised becomes {3,5+}6,3.
Frequency | (1,0) | (2,0) | (3,0) | (4,0) | (5,0) | (6,0) | (7,0) | (8,0) | (m,0) |
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T | 1 | 4 | 9 | 16 | 25 | 36 | 49 | 64 | m2 |
Face triangle | ... | ||||||||
Icosahedral | more | ||||||||
Octahedral | more | ||||||||
Tetrahedral | more |
Frequency | (1,1) | (2,2) | (3,3) | (4,4) | (5,5) | (6,6) | (7,7) | (8,8) | (m,m) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
T | 3 | 12 | 27 | 48 | 75 | 108 | 147 | 192 | 3m2 |
Face triangle | ... | ||||||||
Icosahedral | more | ||||||||
Octahedral | more | ||||||||
Tetrahedral | more |
Frequency | (2,1) | (3,1) | (3,2) | (4,1) | (4,2) | (4,3) | (5,1) | (5,2) | (m,n) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
T | 7 | 13 | 19 | 21 | 28 | 37 | 31 | 39 | m2+mn+n2 |
Face triangle | ... | ||||||||
Icosahedral | more | ||||||||
Octahedral | more | ||||||||
Tetrahedral | more |
Magnus Wenninger's book Spherical Models explores these subdivisions in building polyhedron models. After explaining the construction of these models, he explained his usage of triangular grids to mark out patterns, with triangles colored or excluded in the models. [6]
An artistic model created by Father Magnus Wenninger called Order in Chaos, representing a chiral subset of triangles of a 16-frequency icosahedral geodesic sphere, {3,5+}16,0 | A virtual copy showing icosahedral symmetry great circles. The 6-fold rotational symmetry is illusionary, not existing on the icosahedron itself. | A single icosahedral triangle with a 16-frequency subdivision |
In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges between pairs of faces of the other. Such dual figures remain combinatorial or abstract polyhedra, but not all can also be constructed as geometric polyhedra. Starting with any given polyhedron, the dual of its dual is the original polyhedron.
In geometry, an icosidodecahedron is a polyhedron with twenty (icosi) triangular faces and twelve (dodeca) pentagonal faces. An icosidodecahedron has 30 identical vertices, with two triangles and two pentagons meeting at each, and 60 identical edges, each separating a triangle from a pentagon. As such it is one of the Archimedean solids and more particularly, a quasiregular polyhedron.
In geometry, a polyhedron is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.
In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent regular polygons, and the same number of faces meet at each vertex. There are only five such polyhedra:
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.
In geometry, a tetrakis hexahedron is a Catalan solid. Its dual is the truncated octahedron, an Archimedean solid.
In geometry, a disdyakis dodecahedron,, is a Catalan solid with 48 faces and the dual to the Archimedean truncated cuboctahedron. As such it is face-transitive but with irregular face polygons. It resembles an augmented rhombic dodecahedron. Replacing each face of the rhombic dodecahedron with a flat pyramid creates a polyhedron that looks almost like the disdyakis dodecahedron, and is topologically equivalent to it.
In geometry, a disdyakis triacontahedron, hexakis icosahedron, decakis dodecahedron or kisrhombic triacontahedron is a Catalan solid with 120 faces and the dual to the Archimedean truncated icosidodecahedron. As such it is face-uniform but with irregular face polygons. It slightly resembles an inflated rhombic triacontahedron: if one replaces each face of the rhombic triacontahedron with a single vertex and four triangles in a regular fashion, one ends up with a disdyakis triacontahedron. That is, the disdyakis triacontahedron is the Kleetope of the rhombic triacontahedron. It is also the barycentric subdivision of the regular dodecahedron and icosahedron. It has the most faces among the Archimedean and Catalan solids, with the snub dodecahedron, with 92 faces, in second place.
In geometry, the snub disphenoid is a convex polyhedron with 12 equilateral triangles as its faces. It is an example of deltahedron and Johnson solid. It can be constructed in different approaches. This shape also has alternative names called Siamese dodecahedron, triangular dodecahedron, trigonal dodecahedron, or dodecadeltahedron; these names mean the 12-sided polyhedron.
In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive. It follows that all vertices are congruent.
In geometry, a vertex configuration is a shorthand notation for representing the vertex figure of a polyhedron or tiling as the sequence of faces around a vertex. For uniform polyhedra there is only one vertex type and therefore the vertex configuration fully defines the polyhedron.
In geometry, the dodecadodecahedron is a nonconvex uniform polyhedron, indexed as U36. It is the rectification of the great dodecahedron (and that of its dual, the small stellated dodecahedron). It was discovered independently by Hess (1878), Badoureau (1881) and Pitsch (1882).
In geometry and topology, Conway polyhedron notation, invented by John Horton Conway and promoted by George W. Hart, is used to describe polyhedra based on a seed polyhedron modified by various prefix operations.
In geometry, a spherical polyhedron or spherical tiling is a tiling of the sphere in which the surface is divided or partitioned by great arcs into bounded regions called spherical polygons. Much of the theory of symmetrical polyhedra is most conveniently derived in this way.
The pentakis snub dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 140 triangular faces, 210 edges, and 72 vertices. It has chiral icosahedral symmetry.
In mathematics, and more specifically in polyhedral combinatorics, a Goldberg polyhedron is a convex polyhedron made from hexagons and pentagons. They were first described in 1937 by Michael Goldberg (1902–1990). They are defined by three properties: each face is either a pentagon or hexagon, exactly three faces meet at each vertex, and they have rotational icosahedral symmetry. They are not necessarily mirror-symmetric; e.g. GP(5,3) and GP(3,5) are enantiomorphs of each other. A Goldberg polyhedron is a dual polyhedron of a geodesic polyhedron.
In geometry, chamfering or edge-truncation is a topological operator that modifies one polyhedron into another. It is similar to expansion, moving faces apart and outward, but also maintains the original vertices. For polyhedra, this operation adds a new hexagonal face in place of each original edge.
The order-5 truncated pentagonal hexecontahedron is a convex polyhedron with 72 faces: 60 hexagons and 12 pentagons triangular, with 210 edges, and 140 vertices. Its dual is the pentakis snub dodecahedron.
The hexapentakis truncated icosahedron is a convex polyhedron constructed as an augmented truncated icosahedron. It is geodesic polyhedron {3,5+}3,0, with pentavalent vertices separated by an edge-direct distance of 3 steps.
The Goldberg–Coxeter construction or Goldberg–Coxeter operation is a graph operation defined on regular polyhedral graphs with degree 3 or 4. It also applies to the dual graph of these graphs, i.e. graphs with triangular or quadrilateral "faces". The GC construction can be thought of as subdividing the faces of a polyhedron with a lattice of triangular, square, or hexagonal polygons, possibly skewed with regards to the original face: it is an extension of concepts introduced by the Goldberg polyhedra and geodesic polyhedra. The GC construction is primarily studied in organic chemistry for its application to fullerenes, but it has been applied to nanoparticles, computer-aided design, basket weaving, and the general study of graph theory and polyhedra.
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(March 2023) |