A tetradecahedron is a polyhedron with 14 faces. There are numerous topologically distinct forms of a tetradecahedron, with many constructible entirely with regular polygon faces.
A tetradecahedron is sometimes called a tetrakaidecahedron. [1] [2] No difference in meaning is ascribed. [3] [4] The Greek word kai means 'and'. There is evidence that mammalian epidermal cells are shaped like flattened tetrakaidecahedra, an idea first suggested by Lord Kelvin. [5] The polyhedron can also be found in soap bubbles and in sintered ceramics, due to its ability to tesselate in 3D space. [6] [7]
There are 1,496,225,352 topologically distinct convex tetradecahedra, excluding mirror images, having at least 9 vertices. [8] (Two polyhedra are "topologically distinct" if they have intrinsically different arrangements of faces and vertices, such that it is impossible to distort one into the other simply by changing the lengths of edges or the angles between edges or faces.)
An incomplete list of forms includes:
Tetradecahedra having all regular polygonal faces (all exist in irregular-faced forms as well):
Tetradecahedra having at least one irregular face:
In geometry, an n-gonal antiprism or n-antiprism is a polyhedron composed of two parallel direct copies of an n-sided polygon, connected by an alternating band of 2n triangles. They are represented by the Conway notation An.
In geometry, a Johnson solid is a strictly convex polyhedron each face of which is a regular polygon. There is no requirement that each face must be the same polygon, or that the same polygons join around each vertex. An example of a Johnson solid is the square-based pyramid with equilateral sides ; it has 1 square face and 4 triangular faces. Some authors require that the solid not be uniform before they refer to it as a "Johnson solid".
In geometry, an octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces. The term is most commonly used to refer to the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex.
In geometry, the rhombicuboctahedron, or small rhombicuboctahedron, is a polyhedron with eight triangular, six square, and twelve rectangular faces. There are 24 identical vertices, with one triangle, one square, and two rectangles meeting at each one. If all the rectangles are themselves square, it is an Archimedean solid. The polyhedron has octahedral symmetry, like the cube and octahedron. Its dual is called the deltoidal icositetrahedron or trapezoidal icositetrahedron, although its faces are not really true trapezoids.
In geometry, the truncated octahedron is the Archimedean solid that arises from a regular octahedron by removing six pyramids, one at each of the octahedron's vertices. The truncated octahedron has 14 faces, 36 edges, and 24 vertices. Since each of its faces has point symmetry the truncated octahedron is a 6-zonohedron. It is also the Goldberg polyhedron GIV(1,1), containing square and hexagonal faces. Like the cube, it can tessellate 3-dimensional space, as a permutohedron.
In geometry, the truncated cube, or truncated hexahedron, is an Archimedean solid. It has 14 regular faces, 36 edges, and 24 vertices.
In geometry, the truncated cuboctahedron or great rhombicuboctahedron is an Archimedean solid, named by Kepler as a truncation of a cuboctahedron. It has 12 square faces, 8 regular hexagonal faces, 6 regular octagonal faces, 48 vertices, and 72 edges. Since each of its faces has point symmetry, the truncated cuboctahedron is a 9-zonohedron. The truncated cuboctahedron can tessellate with the octagonal prism.
In geometry, an n-gonaltrapezohedron, n-trapezohedron, n-antidipyramid, n-antibipyramid, or n-deltohedron is the dual polyhedron of an n-gonal antiprism. The 2n faces of an n-trapezohedron are congruent and symmetrically staggered; they are called twisted kites. With a higher symmetry, its 2n faces are kites.
In geometry, the pentagonal bipyramid is third of the infinite set of face-transitive bipyramids, and the 13th Johnson solid. Each bipyramid is the dual of a uniform prism.
In geometry, the gyrobifastigium is the 26th Johnson solid. It can be constructed by joining two face-regular triangular prisms along corresponding square faces, giving a quarter-turn to one prism. It is the only Johnson solid that can tile three-dimensional space.
In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive. It follows that all vertices are congruent.
In geometry, the hexagonal prism is a prism with hexagonal base. Prisms are polyhedrons; this polyhedron has 8 faces, 18 edges, and 12 vertices.
In geometry, a decahedron is a polyhedron with ten faces. There are 32300 topologically distinct decahedra, and none are regular, so this name does not identify a specific type of polyhedron except for the number of faces.
In geometry, an n-gonaltruncated trapezohedron is a polyhedron formed by a n-gonal trapezohedron with n-gonal pyramids truncated from its two polar axis vertices. If the polar vertices are completely truncated (diminished), a trapezohedron becomes an antiprism.
In geometry, a near-miss Johnson solid is a strictly convex polyhedron whose faces are close to being regular polygons but some or all of which are not precisely regular. Thus, it fails to meet the definition of a Johnson solid, a polyhedron whose faces are all regular, though it "can often be physically constructed without noticing the discrepancy" between its regular and irregular faces. The precise number of near-misses depends on how closely the faces of such a polyhedron are required to approximate regular polygons.
In geometry, 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, an enneahedron is a polyhedron with nine faces. There are 2606 types of convex enneahedron, each having a different pattern of vertex, edge, and face connections. None of them are regular.
In geometry, an elongated octahedron is a polyhedron with 8 faces, 14 edges, and 8 vertices.