Following is a list of some mathematically well-defined shapes.
See the list of algebraic surfaces.
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This table shows a summary of regular polytope counts by dimension.
Dimension | Convex | Nonconvex | Convex Euclidean tessellations | Convex hyperbolic tessellations | Nonconvex hyperbolic tessellations | Hyperbolic Tessellations with infinite cells and/or vertex figures | Abstract Polytopes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 line segment | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2 | ∞ polygons | ∞ star polygons | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ∞ |
3 | 5 Platonic solids | 4 Kepler–Poinsot solids | 3 tilings | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ |
4 | 6 convex polychora | 10 Schläfli–Hess polychora | 1 honeycomb | 4 | 0 | 11 | ∞ |
5 | 3 convex 5-polytopes | 0 | 3 tetracombs | 5 | 4 | 2 | ∞ |
6 | 3 convex 6-polytopes | 0 | 1 pentacombs | 0 | 0 | 5 | ∞ |
7+ | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ∞ |
There are no nonconvex Euclidean regular tessellations in any number of dimensions.
The elements of a polytope can be considered according to either their own dimensionality or how many dimensions "down" they are from the body.
For example, in a polyhedron (3-dimensional polytope), a face is a facet, an edge is a ridge, and a vertex is a peak.
The classical convex polytopes may be considered tessellations, or tilings, of spherical space. Tessellations of euclidean and hyperbolic space may also be considered regular polytopes. Note that an 'n'-dimensional polytope actually tessellates a space of one dimension less. For example, the (three-dimensional) platonic solids tessellate the 'two'-dimensional 'surface' of the sphere.
There is only one polytope in 1 dimension, whose boundaries are the two endpoints of a line segment, represented by the empty Schläfli symbol {}.
Polygons named for their number of sides
In geometry, a regular icosahedron is a convex polyhedron with 20 faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices. It is one of the five Platonic solids, and the one with the most faces.
In four-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 5-cell is a convex uniform 4-polytope, being a runcination of the regular 5-cell.
In four-dimensional geometry, a runcinated tesseract is a convex uniform 4-polytope, being a runcination of the regular tesseract.
In geometry, a triangular prism is a three-sided prism; it is a polyhedron made of a triangular base, a translated copy, and 3 faces joining corresponding sides. A right triangular prism has rectangular sides, otherwise it is oblique. A uniform triangular prism is a right triangular prism with equilateral bases, and square sides.
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 hyperbolic geometry, the order-4 dodecahedral honeycomb is one of four compact regular space-filling tessellations of hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol {5,3,4}, it has four dodecahedra around each edge, and 8 dodecahedra around each vertex in an octahedral arrangement. Its vertices are constructed from 3 orthogonal axes. Its dual is the order-5 cubic honeycomb.
In hyperbolic geometry, the order-5 dodecahedral honeycomb is one of four compact regular space-filling tessellations in hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol {5,3,5}, it has five dodecahedral cells around each edge, and each vertex is surrounded by twenty dodecahedra. Its vertex figure is an icosahedron.
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.
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.
In geometry, an alternation or partial truncation, is an operation on a polygon, polyhedron, tiling, or higher dimensional polytope that removes alternate vertices.
In four-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 24-cell is a convex uniform 4-polytope, being a runcination of the regular 24-cell.
In four-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 120-cell is a convex uniform 4-polytope, being a runcination of the regular 120-cell.
In geometry, a simplicial polytope is a polytope whose facets are all simplices. For example, a simplicial polyhedron in three dimensions contains only triangular faces and corresponds via Steinitz's theorem to a maximal planar graph.
In five-dimensional geometry, a stericated 5-simplex is a convex uniform 5-polytope with fourth-order truncations (sterication) of the regular 5-simplex.
In the field of hyperbolic geometry, the order-4 hexagonal tiling honeycomb arises as one of 11 regular paracompact honeycombs in 3-dimensional hyperbolic space. It is paracompact because it has cells composed of an infinite number of faces. Each cell is a hexagonal tiling whose vertices lie on a horosphere: a flat plane in hyperbolic space that approaches a single ideal point at infinity.
The order-6 cubic honeycomb is a paracompact regular space-filling tessellation in hyperbolic 3-space. It is paracompact because it has vertex figures composed of an infinite number of facets, with all vertices as ideal points at infinity. With Schläfli symbol {4,3,6}, the honeycomb has six ideal cubes meeting along each edge. Its vertex figure is an infinite triangular tiling. Its dual is the order-4 hexagonal tiling honeycomb.
The order-6 dodecahedral honeycomb is one of 11 paracompact regular honeycombs in hyperbolic 3-space. It is paracompact because it has vertex figures composed of an infinite number of faces, with all vertices as ideal points at infinity. It has Schläfli symbol {5,3,6}, with six ideal dodecahedral cells surrounding each edge of the honeycomb. Each vertex is ideal, and surrounded by infinitely many dodecahedra. The honeycomb has a triangular tiling vertex figure.
In the field of hyperbolic geometry, the order-5 hexagonal tiling honeycomb arises as one of 11 regular paracompact honeycombs in 3-dimensional hyperbolic space. It is paracompact because it has cells composed of an infinite number of faces. Each cell consists of a hexagonal tiling whose vertices lie on a horosphere, a flat plane in hyperbolic space that approaches a single ideal point at infinity.
In the geometry of hyperbolic 3-space, the square tiling honeycomb is one of 11 paracompact regular honeycombs. It is called paracompact because it has infinite cells, whose vertices exist on horospheres and converge to a single ideal point at infinity. Given by Schläfli symbol {4,4,3}, it has three square tilings, {4,4}, around each edge, and six square tilings around each vertex, in a cubic {4,3} vertex figure.