In
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
, a bitruncation is an operation on
regular polytope
In mathematics, a regular polytope is a polytope whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags, thus giving it the highest degree of symmetry. All its elements or -faces (for all , where is the dimension of the polytope) — cells, f ...
s. It represents a
truncation
In mathematics and computer science, truncation is limiting the number of digits right of the decimal point.
Truncation and floor function
Truncation of positive real numbers can be done using the floor function. Given a number x \in \mathbb ...
beyond
rectification
Rectification has the following technical meanings:
Mathematics
* Rectification (geometry), truncating a polytope by marking the midpoints of all its edges, and cutting off its vertices at those points
* Rectifiable curve, in mathematics
* Recti ...
. The original
edges are lost completely and the original
faces
The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affe ...
remain as smaller copies of themselves.
Bitruncated regular polytopes can be represented by an extended
Schläfli symbol
In geometry, the Schläfli symbol is a notation of the form \ that defines regular polytopes and tessellations.
The Schläfli symbol is named after the 19th-century Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli, who generalized Euclidean geometry to more ...
notation or
In regular polyhedra and tilings
For regular
polyhedra
In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.
A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on t ...
(i.e. regular 3-polytopes), a ''bitruncated'' form is the truncated
dual. For example, a bitruncated
cube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross.
The cube is the only r ...
is a
truncated octahedron
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 (8 regular hexagon, hexagons and 6 Squa ...
.
In regular 4-polytopes and honeycombs
For a regular
4-polytope
In geometry, a 4-polytope (sometimes also called a polychoron, polycell, or polyhedroid) is a four-dimensional polytope. It is a connected and closed figure, composed of lower-dimensional polytopal elements: vertices, edges, faces (polygons), an ...
, a ''bitruncated'' form is a dual-symmetric operator. A bitruncated 4-polytope is the same as the bitruncated dual, and will have double the symmetry if the original 4-polytope is
self-dual
In mathematics, a duality translates concepts, theorems or mathematical structures into other concepts, theorems or structures, in a Injective function, one-to-one fashion, often (but not always) by means of an Involution (mathematics), involutio ...
.
A regular polytope (or
honeycomb
A honeycomb is a mass of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic Beeswax, wax cells built by honey bees in their beehive, nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.
beekeeping, Beekee ...
) will have its cells bitruncated into truncated cells, and the vertices are replaced by truncated cells.
Self-dual 4-polytope/honeycombs
An interesting result of this operation is that self-dual 4-polytope (and honeycombs) remain
cell-transitive
In geometry, a tessellation of dimension (a plane tiling) or higher, or a polytope of dimension (a polyhedron) or higher, is isohedral or face-transitive if all its Face (geometry), faces are the same. More specifically, all faces must be not ...
after bitruncation. There are 5 such forms corresponding to the five truncated regular polyhedra: t. Two are honeycombs on the
3-sphere
In mathematics, a 3-sphere is a higher-dimensional analogue of a sphere. It may be embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean space as the set of points equidistant from a fixed central point. Analogous to how the boundary of a ball in three dimensi ...
, one a honeycomb in Euclidean 3-space, and two are honeycombs in hyperbolic 3-space.
See also
*
uniform polyhedron
In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive (i.e., there is an isometry mapping any vertex onto any other). It follows that all vertices are congruent.
Uniform polyhedra may be regular (if also fa ...
*
uniform 4-polytope
In geometry, a uniform 4-polytope (or uniform polychoron) is a 4-dimensional polytope which is vertex-transitive and whose cells are uniform polyhedra, and faces are regular polygons.
There are 47 non-prismatic convex uniform 4-polytopes. There ...
*
Rectification (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 Edge (geometry), edges, and cutting off its Vertex (geometry), vertices ...
*
Truncation (geometry)
In geometry, a truncation is an operation in any dimension that cuts polytope vertices, creating a new Facet (geometry), facet in place of each vertex. The term originates from Kepler's names for the Archimedean solids.
Uniform truncation
In ge ...
References
*
Coxeter, H.S.M. ''
Regular Polytopes
In mathematics, a regular polytope is a polytope whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags, thus giving it the highest degree of symmetry. All its elements or -faces (for all , where is the dimension of the polytope) — cells, ...
'', (3rd edition, 1973), Dover edition, (pp. 145–154 Chapter 8: Truncation)
*
Norman Johnson ''Uniform Polytopes'', Manuscript (1991)
**
N.W. Johnson: ''The Theory of Uniform Polytopes and Honeycombs'', Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Toronto, 1966
*
John H. Conway
John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English people, English mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to ...
,
Heidi Burgiel
''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Used ...
,
Chaim Goodman-Strauss
Chaim Goodman-Strauss (born June 22, 1967 in Austin TX) is an American mathematician who works in convex geometry, especially aperiodic tiling. He is on the faculty of the University of Arkansas and is a co-author with John H. Conway of ''The Sym ...
, ''The Symmetries of Things'' 2008, (Chapter 26)
External links
*
{{Polyhedron_operators
Polytopes