Triakisoctahedron

In geometry, a triakis octahedron (or trigonal trisoctahedron or kisoctahedronConway, Symmetries of things, p. 284) is an Archimedean dual solid, or a Catalan solid. Its dual is the truncated cube.

It can be seen as an octahedron with triangular pyramids added to each face; that is, it is the Kleetope of the octahedron. It is also sometimes called a ''trisoctahedron'', or, more fully, ''trigonal trisoctahedron''. Both names reflect that it has three triangular faces for every face of an octahedron. The ''tetragonal trisoctahedron'' is another name for the deltoidal icositetrahedron, a different polyhedron with three quadrilateral faces for every face of an octahedron.

This convex polyhedron is topologically similar to the concave stellated octahedron. They have the same face connectivity, but the vertices are in different relative distances from the center.

If its shorter edges have length 1, its surface area and volume are:
:$\begin A &= 3\sqrt \\ V &= \frac \end$

Cartesian coordinates

Put $\alpha=\sqrt-1$, then the 14 points $(\pm\alpha, \pm\alpha, \pm\alpha)$ and $(\pm 1, 0, 0)$, $(0, \pm 1, 0)$ and $(0, 0, \pm 1)$ are the vertices of a triakis octahedron centered at the origin.

The length of the long edges equals $\sqrt$, and that of the short edges $2\sqrt-2$.

The faces are isosceles triangles with one obtuse and two acute angles. The obtuse angle equals $\arccos(\frac-\frac\sqrt)\approx 117.200\,570\,380\,16^$ and the acute ones equal $\arccos(\frac+\frac\sqrt)\approx 31.399\,714\,809\,92^$.

Orthogonal projections

The ''triakis octahedron'' has three symmetry positions, two located on vertices, and one mid-edge:

Cultural references

* A triakis octahedron is a vital element in the plot of cult author Hugh Cook's novel '' The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers''.

Related polyhedra

The triakis octahedron is one of a family of duals to the uniform polyhedra related to the cube and regular octahedron.

The triakis octahedron is a part of a sequence of polyhedra and tilings, extending into the hyperbolic plane. These face-transitive figures have (*''n''32) reflectional symmetry.

The triakis octahedron is also a part of a sequence of polyhedra and tilings, extending into the hyperbolic plane. These face-transitive figures have (*''n''42) reflectional symmetry.

References

* (Section 3-9)
* (The thirteen semiregular convex polyhedra and their duals, Page 17, Triakisoctahedron)
* ''The Symmetries of Things'' 2008, John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, Chaim Goodman-Strass,

(Chapter 21, Naming the Archimedean and Catalan polyhedra and tilings, page 284, Triakis octahedron)

External links

*

Triakis Octahedron
– Interactive Polyhedron Model


www.georgehart.com: The Encyclopedia of Polyhedra
** VRMLbr>model
*

Try: "dtC"

{{Polyhedron-stub

Catalan solids